Teva Women’s Health recently announced some of the topics of the abstracts that will be presented at the 60th Annual clinical Meeting of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Included among the many subjects that will be discussed is the ability of adolescents to understand the concepts necessary to safely and effectively use over-the-counter emergency contraceptives. Contraception and family planning are important issues that are being raised in the political sphere these days as it relates to whether health insurance providers can deny paying for certain forms of birth control for women on moral or religious grounds.

There has long been debate on the kinds of birth control that should be available to women in a certain age bracket. This latest issue as to whether health insurance providers should have to pay for birth control or not is likely to remain an important topic on the political agenda with women voter now officially outnumbering male voters. Each candidate needs women voters to come out and vote, so each candidate will likely try to spend this issue to play to the concerns of the women voters who are most likely to vote for each candidate.

The debate here is less about science and more about what decisions the government has a right to dictate to the public. Many feel that the issue at stake here has more to do with religious freedom, while other feel that the bigger issue at stake is a woman’s right to choose what she wants to do with her body. As both candidates shape their viewpoint on the issue throughout the campaign it will be interesting to see how it all plays out in November.