Judge Criticizes Obama Administration as It Appeals Contraception Decision (click here)
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
A federal judge on Tuesday angrily accused the Obama administration of hurting poor and minority women by seeking to restrict their access to morning-after contraceptive pills.
Lawyers for the Justice Department appeared before Judge Edward R. Korman in an effort to delay his previous order that the drug be made available to girls of all ages without a prescription. The department announced last week that it planned to appeal the ruling.
Judge Korman, of United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, said he would decide this week whether to freeze implementation of his order while the appeal proceeds. But for the second time in a month, he used his perch on the bench to lecture the Food and Drug Administration and President Obama for their efforts to restrict access to the drug by very young women.
“The poor, the young and African-Americans are going to be put in the position of not having access to this drug,” he said, according to The Associated Press....
WHO NEEDS CONTRACEPTIVES? (click here)
• There are 62 million U.S. women in their childbearing years (15–44). Those who are sexually active and do not want to become pregnant, but could become pregnant if they and their partners fail to use a contraceptive method, are at risk of unintended pregnancy.
• Forty-three million women of childbearing age (69%) are at risk of unintended pregnancy.
• Thirty-one percent of women of reproductive age do not need a contraceptive method because they are infertile; are pregnant, postpartum or trying to become pregnant; have never had intercourse; or are not sexually active.
• Couples who do not use any method of contraception have an approximately 85% chance of experiencing a pregnancy over the course of a year.
• The typical U.S. woman wants only two children. To achieve this goal, she must use contraceptives for roughly three decades.
WHO USES CONTRACEPTIVES?
• More than 99% of women aged 15–44 who have ever had sexual intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method.
• The proportion of all women of reproductive age who are currently using a contraceptive method increased from 56% in 1982 to 64% in 1995. It declined to 62% in 2002 and remained at that level in 2006–2008.
• Among women who are at risk of unintended pregnancy, 89% are currently using contraceptives.
• About one in 10 women at risk of unintended pregnancy are currently not using any contraceptive method. The proportion is highest among 15–19-year-olds (19%) and lowest among women aged 40–44 (8%).
• Eighty-four percent of black women who are at risk of unintended pregnancy currently use a contraceptive method, compared with 91% of their Hispanic and white peers, and 92% of Asian women....
