WOMEN’S HEALTH EQUITY BILL GAINS SUPPORT OF STATEWIDE ORGANIZATIONS, TWO PRESS CONFERENCES SCHEDULED
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Feb. 14, 2018) – Statewide organizations and businesses are standing together in support of the Women’s Health Equity Bill (HB 2627/ SB 2185), which proactively supports Tennessee women and families by ensuring insurance coverage of contraception and women’s preventative health services. The bill is sponsored by Democratic Senator Jeff Yarbro and Representative Johnnie Turner, and co-sponsored by Representative Brenda Gilmore.
Press conferences are scheduled in Knoxville and Nashville to formally present the bill to the public. The Knoxville press conference is open to the media and public Wednesday, February 14 from 12 p.m. – 12:45 p.m. EST at Suffrage Memorial in Market Square. The media only conference in Nashville is Wednesday, February 14 at 1:30 p.m. – 2 p.m. in the media room of the Cordell Hull Legislative Building.
Support is shared by: Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood, Healthy and Free Tennessee, American Civil Liberties Union Tennessee, Tennessee Chapter of Physicians for National Health Care, Women’s March: Power Together Tennessee, Women’s March Coalition – East Tennessee, SisterReach, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health, CHOICES: Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, Latino Memphis, Davidson County Democratic Women, Knoxville Feminist Brigade, Urban League of Middle Tennessee, Urban League Young Professionals of Middle Tennessee, Women Matter Northeast Tennessee, Service Employees International Union, Friends for Life, Middle Tennessee Democratic Socialists of America, Indivisible East Tennessee, Indivisible Tri-Cities Tennessee, National Council of Jewish Women, A Better Balance, OUTMemphis, Advocates for Women’s and Kids’ Equity, Tennessee Citizen Action, United Campus Workers, AAUW of Tennessee, League of Women Voters of Tennessee, Tennessee Equality Project, Women’s Political Collaborative, and Tennessee Health Care Campaign. Additional support is welcome.
The Women’s Health Equity Bill requires coverage of contraception in a way that both enshrines and expands the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) birth control benefit, and requires coverage for women’s preventive services. In October 2017, the presidential administration granted power to states to reduce coverage for contraception and women’s preventative health services that were previously provided by the ACA. This bill honors religious freedom by allowing non-profit religious employers to be exempt from covering contraception for their employees, while prohibiting workplace or political discrimination against women regarding their health coverage.
encourage and protect informed individual choice regarding reproductive health care; to advocate public policies
that guarantee the right to choice and full and nondiscriminatory access to reproductive health care; and to foster
and preserve a social and political climate favorable to the exercise of reproductive choice.
