New legislation now requires that federal employee health plans covering perscription drugs must also cover certain contraceptive methods

From Reporter Louise Schiavone

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- What appears to some as a basic issue of fairness re-opens the abortion debate for others.

That's what's happening as Congress debates contraception and who pays for it. A Senate panel was scheduled Tuesday to discuss the issue.

RELATED VIDEO
CNN's Louise Schiavone reporting from Washington
Windows Media	28K	56K

"How do you define contraception; How do you define pregnancy?" said Congressman Christopher Smith (R-New Jersey). "For some it is implantation; for some it is fertilization."

On a close vote July 16, the House agreed that federal employee health plans covering prescription drugs must also cover the five contraception methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration: Norplant, Depo-Provera, the IUD, the diaphragm and contraceptive pills.

The new legislation will affect an estimated 1.2 million women of child-bearing age covered by federal employees' health plans.

The Senate now confronts the same issue along with a larger bill requiring the private health plans covering prescription drugs to also cover birth control.

Recent controversy over the coverage of Viagara gave a boost to the issue of contraceptive coverage

"Birth control pills have been on the market since 1960," said Sen. Olympia Snowe (D-Maine). They are the most effective and most popular form of contraceptives and yet only a third of the largest group plans in America provide coverage for the birth control pill."

"Women spend 90 percent of their reproductive years trying not to be pregnant," said Judith DeSarno of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. "It's a very costly endeavor to not become pregnant in this country because most insurance plans do not cover all of the methods of contraception."

This issue has gained an unexpected boost from the hot-selling male impotence drug Viagra as women ask, "if many insurers cover Viagra, why not contraceptives?"

Insurance companies aren't happy about the effort to require contraceptive coverage in prescription plans. But recent polling shows three quarters of Americans favor insurance coverage of contraceptives, even if their premiums go up.