Usually one makes the case for a policy before enacting it. Not so with the Left’s new push to promote long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and hormone-dispensing implants. Acting on authority given it by the Affordable Care Act, in 2012 the Obama administration’s Department of Health and Human Services mandated that insurance plans cover these forms of birth control without a co-pay, thus eliminating the high up-front cost that steers many women toward other methods. But it wasn’t until more recently that prominent left-leaning analysts, most notably Isabel V. Sawhill of the Brookings Institution, made a detailed argument that wider use of these devices could actually reduce unwanted pregnancy despite the failure of earlier contraceptive-pushing campaigns to achieve that goal.
Many conservatives won’t get behind a government policy to socialize the cost of contraception, especially after the administration tried to force the mandate on objecting religious employers. But given their deep concerns about abortion and out-of-wedlock births, should those on the right at least see the upside here, and perhaps go along with a cultural campaign to encourage the use of LARCs?
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