Biden administration to propose expanding access to over-the-counter contraception at no cost
CNN
The Biden administration is set to propose a new rule Monday that would require private insurance plans to cover over-the-counter contraception without a prescription at no cost.
The Biden administration is set to propose a new rule Monday that would require private insurance plans to cover over-the-counter contraception without a prescription at no cost. Jen Klein, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council, called the proposal “the most significant expansion of contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act in more than a decade.” Reproductive health has emerged as a key issue in the race for the White House in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Democrats are warning that the decision put access to fertility treatments and contraception at risk in red states across the country. A Democratic-backed measure to codify contraception access failed to pass the Senate in June. On the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris has warned that Donald Trump would gut reproductive health access if returned to the White House. The former president, meanwhile, said he would not support restricting birth control shortly after claiming he was “looking at” contraceptives when asked whether he supported any restrictions to the right to contraception. “Dangerous and extreme abortion bans are putting women’s health and lives at risk and disrupting access to critical health care services, including contraception, as health care providers are forced to close in states across the country,” Klein warned on a Friday call with reporters previewing the rule, adding that “Republican elected officials in states have made clear that they plan to ban or restrict birth control in addition to abortion.” The Affordable Care Act requires that most private health plans cover contraception with no cost-sharing. But insurers are allowed to require a prescription for over-the-counter contraception at no cost.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.
The FBI arrested a person Thursday who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.
A new poll shows more than 70% of Republicans with Obamacare coverage don’t want their enhanced premium subsidies to expire.