The Prescription Contraception Equity Act, reintroduced to the PA Senate on March 1, 2005 by PA State Senator Connie Williams (D-17), is legislation that mandates health insurance companies to cover contraception if they provide prescription drug coverage. According to NARAL PA, “many health insurance companies doe not currently cover prescription contraceptives, forcing women of childbearing age to spend 68% more than men on out-of-pocket health care cost.”
As of the end of the 2004 legislative session, 21 states had implemented some version of the Prescription Contraceptive Equity Act.
If you would like to voice your support of this legislation, please contact the legislators serving on the Committee on Banking and Insurance for the Senate Bill 474 or the Insurance Committee for the House Bill 149 (click here).
Amendment to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act of 1955
Pennsylvania Human Relations Act of 1955 (PHRA) prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religious creed, ancestry, age or national origin by employers, employment agencies and labor organizations.
PHRA does not prohibit or make it illegal for employers in Pennsylvania to ask potential employees the questions, “Are you married?” and “Do you have children?” during job interviews.
Kiki Peppard of Effort, PA, began a letter writing campaign to legislators over ten years ago after she moved to Northeastern Pennsylvania and felt she had been discriminated against by various employers once they discovered she was a single mother. After several years, legislation was introduced to amend PHRA in consecutive legislative sessions but the amendment has not moved out of committee.
The amendment would simply prohibit employers from asking job applicants about their marital or familial status. Marital status would be defined as, “single, married, divorced, separated, or widowed.”
The amendment to the PHRA is imperative because as Edward McCaffrey, Program Analyst for the Philadelphia District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stated in a speech to the Members of the House State Government Committee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, “There is no federal law which prohibits employment discrimination because of familial status or marital status. The agency simply has no authority to look into such a charge.”
Currently, 23 states have laws prohibiting discrimination based on familial or marital status. Pennsylvania needs to be next.
For more information about this legislation, contact Kiki Peppard.
f you would like to voice your support of this legislation, please contact the legislators serving on the Committee on Labor and Industry for the Senate Bill 440 or the Judiciary Committee for House Bill 352 (click here).