Prevention First

When it comes to preventive health care, Ohio’s public policy is appalling.  For the past several years, policy makers have been promoting an ultra-conservative reproductive health agenda that significantly undermines women’s access to contraception.  In a recent survey by The Guttmacher Institute, Ohio ranked a dismal 48th in the country for its laws and policies relating to the availability of and public funding for contraceptives.(1)

The Ohio Prevention First Act (SB190/HB281) is a signature piece of legislation that focuses on the prevention of unintended pregnancies through comprehensive sex education for teens, including abstinence, and affordable, accessible birth control.

The bill includes the following provisions:

• Require sex education classes to provide students with medically accurate information about abstinence, contraception and condom use as ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. 
• Ensure that sexual assault victims have access to emergency contraception as well as any CDC recommended preventative treatment for sexually transmitted diseases in all hospital emergency rooms. 
• Create a state teen pregnancy prevention task force that would recommend medically accurate and scientifically proven effective programs for reducing Ohio’s teen pregnancy rate.
• Require a pharmacy to dispense any prescribed drug, device or over-the-counter medication in stock without delay, consistent with the normal timeframe, and ensure that every licensed pharmacy does not intimidate, threaten or harass its customers in the delivery of services.
• Require the Department of Health to create materials to educate medical professionals and the general public about emergency contraception and to make them available on their website.
• Forbid a health insurance company from limiting or excluding coverage for FDA-approved prescription contraception if the policy covers other prescription drugs or devices, prevent insurance companies from charging a higher co-payment for contraception than they charge for other prescription drugs, and require the health insurance policies of public employees to cover contraception at the same rate as that of other prescription drugs.
   

(1)  Guttmacher Institute.  Contraception Counts, March 2006