Bill Proposed to Make Emergency Contraception More Readily Available to Women in the Military

Via AirForceTimes I learned that the Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act [S 2904/HR 4386], a bill that would require emergency contraception to be made available at all military health care treatment facilities, was introduced in mid-December by sponsors Al Franken (D-MN) in the Senate and Michael Michaud (D-ME) in the House.

NARAL Pro-Choice America praised the bill, noting the bill's potential affect on women serving overseas, stating, "Sen. Franken's bill is based on the principle of fairness: Women in the military serving overseas should be able to access EC the same way women stateside do."

The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Armed Services. A similar bill was introduced in 2007 but failed to make it out of committee.

The blogger at Lettuce Spray called the Senate Committee on Armed Services about the legislation (something she also encourages others to do), and learned that "the committee has not yet scheduled anything for January, and are not scheduled to start any hearings until after January 20th. As soon as a hearing date is set (if at all) it will be posted to their website."