(Image source: TheNationalCampaign.org)

BY GARY COTTON & TRACY PFEIFFER

ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY

You're watching multisource politics video news analysis from Newsy. 

Should the government cover the cost of contraceptives? That’s the question being mulled over after a report from the Institute of Medicine -- urging the government to add this stipulation to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act. 

“The Institute of Medicine is calling on the government to make sure birth control is available for free under President Obama’s health care overhaul. The non-partisan panel of doctors wants to require insurance companies to cover birth control as preventative care for women and that would mean no co-payments for birth control.” (KABC)

CNN explains -- one major argument behind the move -- is financial.

“The direct medical cost of unintended pregnancy in the United States was estimated to be nearly $5 billion in 2002. The cost savings due to contraceptive use in that same year was estimated to be $19.3 billion, according to [the] study.”

Women with unintended pregnancies are more likely not to receive prenatal care.

But they’re more likely to engage in behaviors such as smoking and drug use.

And that’s why one representative from Planned Parenthood tells WRC -- this is an issue of need.

“We have people having to make those very hard choices between paying for things that they know they definitely need and also not having the funds to cover other things they need, like access to contraception.”

Not everyone is on board with the the proposed policy, however. NPR interviewed a Family Research Council representative who was concerned the policy will violate people’s religious rights.

“Say for example that I had a problem with it; I would be paying into a plan that would be covering them...So in a way I would be forced to pay for it myself."

Finally -- while the birth control question has gotten the most media coverage, TIME’s Healthland blog notes -- the report suggested plenty of other things. Among them...

“...recommendations to improve care for pregnant women, including more universal gestational diabetes testing and lactation support for women who chose to breastfeed. Domestic violence and abuse was another area of focus for the committee members, who recommended that all women and teenage girls receive information and culturally-sensitive counseling about what constitutes abuse.”

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Transcript by Newsy.