Due to the passage of a new health care reform law, a recommendation has been set in place for health insurers to cover eight different preventive services for women, including birth control.

“The new health care reform law represents the biggest opportunity to advance women’s health in decades,” said Jill June, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland.

The reform recommendation will allow women to be covered for all forms of birth control, thus allowing women to use different services without having to endure the hassle of co-paying for them. Services available under the new law include contraceptives, counseling, annual exams, HIV testing and screening and counseling for domestic violence.

June believes that having no co-pay will “eliminate barriers that prevent women form receiving preventive services.”

“For the millions of women who have struggled to pay for birth control, the recommendation offers great cause for hope,” June said.

Statistics show that only 50 percent of women who need family planning services are able to access the care they need, according to Planned Parenthood.

“The recommendation will increase access to affordable family planning, reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and improve the overall health of women,” June said.

According to Planned Parenthood, half of all pregnancies are unintended. But with affordable planning, that can change.

“By reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies, the number of women who may consider [abortions] will also decline,” June said.

June and Planned Parenthood believe that covering birth control with no co-pay is one important step in addressing the high number of unintended pregnancies.

With changes like this to a health care bill, there are tendencies to have long-term and short term-effects on the country. One benefit, coming from Planned Parenthood, would be all of the available family planning that can now happen due to not charging for co-pays. Also, in the long run, taxpayers will save $3 for every planned pregnancy the reform now covers.

Vice President of College Republicans at Iowa State Caytlin Hentzel believes the recommendation will help women. However, she worries that companies that make birth control will lean toward the cheapest way ro do so, especially in today’s economy.

“If you’re going to provide birth control to every woman for free, they may not have the highest quality out there,” Hentzel said.

In the end, Hentzel believes the most important thing the recommendation will do for women is to increase their knowledge of birth control and family planning. 

“I think it’s going to make women more aware that the resources are out there and make them [safer],” she said.