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The Ohio Prevention First Act
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Call your local legislator and demand action on House Bill 281 and Senate Bill 190.
Ohio Prevention First Act Talking Points
What the legislation will do:
- Ensure that sexual assault victims have access to emergency contraception and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases in all hospital emergency rooms.
- Require sex education classes to provide students with medically accurate information about abstinence, contraception and condom use as ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and STD’s including HIV/AIDS. Sex education programs that do not follow these guidelines are not eligible for state funding.
- Forbid a health insurance company from limiting or excluding coverage for FDA-approved prescription contraception if the policy covers other prescription drugs or devices.
- Create a teen pregnancy prevention state 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 it’s customers in the delivery of services.
- Require the Department of Health to create and make available on their website, materials to educate medical professionals and the general public about emergency contraception.
Why Prevention First?
- In the United States, about half of all pregnancies are unintended.
- 98% of women will, at some point in their lives, use birth control.
- In Ohio, 1.3 million women are in need of family planning services and 666,670 women are in need of state funded family planning services.
- Ohio ranks 48th in the country for its laws and policies relating to the availability of and public funding for contraceptives.
- In 2006, nearly 27,000 Ohio girls between the ages of 10 and 19 became pregnant.
- 89% of Ohio voters– both Republicans and Democrats– support women having access to contraception. This majority includes 83% of self-identified pro-life voters.
- Further, 64% agreed that increasing access to contraception is more effective in reducing the number of abortions than enacting more restrictive abortion laws.
Mary Kuhlman, Public News Service - OH
August 4, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Reproductive rights have been a hot issue in Ohio, with several bills introduced in the state Legislature this year which would limit women's access to abortion and contraceptive services. One proposed law, however, is taking a different approach, by offering provisions that encourage prevention and protecting the rights of rape victims.
The Ohio Prevention First Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, has yet to receive much attention. Unlike controversial bans on abortion, Antonio says, this bill uses prevention as an important strategy to reduce unintended pregnancies.
"If we really want to get the root of the issue of unintended pregnancies, then that's to set up opportunities to prevent through education, so women are not dealing with unintended pregnancies to begin with."
The bill includes several provisions, including the creation of a teen-pregnancy prevention task force, implementing comprehensive reproductive-health education in schools, preventing pharmacies from refusing to dispense federal Food and Drug Administration-approved prescription contraception, and giving sexual-assault victims information and access to emergency contraception. Opponents argue that the bill violates the right of health-care providers to act as their conscience dictates; supporters say it's about protecting the health of women.
The Ohio Prevention First Act has been introduced in the past. This time, supporters such as Gary Dougherty, state legislative director for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio, hope the Legislature can focus on the need to prevent unintended pregnancies rather than divisive issues.
"Abortion bans and head-in-the-sand approaches don't work. What works is education and information."
During this session, state House lawmakers have approved bills that prohibit abortions after a heartbeat is detected, ban late-term abortions after 20 weeks, and restrict insurance coverage for abortions.
