As Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris makes reproductive rights a centerpiece of her campaign, the Biden-Harris administration on Monday proposed a dramatic expansion of contraception coverage.

The proposed rule would require that insurers cover the cost of over-the-counter birth control and other measures designed to increase access to contraceptives.

What You Need To Know

  • The Biden-Harris administration on Monday proposed a dramatic expansion of contraception coverage

  • The proposed rule would require that insurers cover the cost of over-the-counter birth control, including condoms and the nonprescription birth control pill Opill

  • About 65 million women are of reproductive age in the United States

  • The move comes more than two years after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the national right to an abortion

“Every woman in every state must have reproductive freedom and access to the healthcare they need,” Harris said in a statement released by the White House. 

Calling it the largest expansion of contraception coverage in more than a decade, she said the “new proposed rule will build on our Administration’s work to protect reproductive freedom by providing millions of women with more options for the affordable contraception they need and deserve.”

About 65 million women are of reproductive age in the United States, according to the World Health Organization. 

Provided through the Affordable Care Act, the new rule would apply to condoms, spermicides and the nonprescription birth control pill Opill, as well as emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy if taken shortly after unprotected sex. 

The ACA currently covers the cost of prescription birth control. The new rule would expand to apply to the over-the-counter version the Food and Drug Administration approved last year. 

The move comes more than two years after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the national right to an abortion. Twenty-one states currently ban abortion or make access to the procedure more restrictive than what was allowed under Roe v. Wade. 

In a concurring opinion to the Dobbs ruling, conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said that the high court should "reconsider" a number of high-profile rulings, including the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed married couples’ right to contraception. 

Harris on the campaign trail has warned that Griswold could be at risk under a future Trump administration. 

At least 13 states and Washington, D.C., currently have regulations that protect a woman’s right to contraception, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In 2022, the House of Representatives passed the Right to Contraception Act to codify Americans’ right to contraception, but it failed to pass in the Senate.

A 2022 poll conducted by FiveThirtyEight found widespread support for contraceptives, with about 90% of Americans saying they support condoms and birth control pills and 80% supporting intrauterine devices, or IUDs. Another 70% said they support emergency contraception including Plan B, and almost 60% said they support medical abortion or abortion pills.