According to the reproductive rights nonprofit Power to Decide, more than 19 million women in the U.S. live in contraceptive deserts. (Credit: Kaboompics.com, Pexels.com)

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris just proposed a game-changing new plan to make birth control far more accessible. 

The new proposal would make over-the-counter birth control and condoms free for people of reproductive age who have private health insurance, White House officials say. This coverage expansion could impact an estimated 52 million young women throughout the U.S., they added. In addition, the proposal would offer patients access to preventative services, including cancer screenings, free of cost-sharing obligations.

“Republican elected officials in some states have made clear they want to ban or restrict birth control in addition to abortion, and Republicans in Congress have attacked contraception access nationwide by proposing to defund the Title X Family Planning Program,” reads the fact sheet on the proposal released by the White House. “President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family.”

Indeed, the proposed rule comes as Republican officials work to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, the landmark healthcare legislation signed into law by former President Barack Obama in 2010. Just last month, for example, Trump attacked the ACA during his debate with Harris, calling it “lousy healthcare.” He added, “If we come up with something, and we are working on things, we’re going to do it and we’re going to replace it.” 

The Biden-Harris proposal would address a growing need in the U.S. According to the reproductive rights nonprofit Power to Decide, more than 19 million women in the U.S. live in contraceptive deserts — or, regions that have limited access to healthcare centers offering contraceptives — with especially large pockets found in states like Texas and Kansas. Additional data from the Guttmacher Institute reveals that, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, barriers to accessing contraception increased, as the quality of contraceptive care waned.

The proposed rule follows other efforts to expand contraception access from the current administration, including an executive order announced last year to help college students, military service members and veterans, and federal employees access birth control and emergency contraception. The president also previously signed a memorandum in January 2023 to protect legal access to medical abortion. And last December, Harris kicked-off her nationwide “Reproductive Freedoms Tour” to highlight the harmful impacts of abortion bans on women.

Implementing this new rule is just one piece of the puzzle – both Biden and Harris say they will continue to push Congress to restore Roe v. Wade, to further ensure “that women in every state are able to make their own decisions about reproductive health care.”