by Sarah Audelo, Senior Manager, Domestic Policy

We have some GREAT news to share.

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that starting in August 2012, all new health insurance plans will be required to cover contraception with no co-pay — including condoms, birth control pills, contraceptive shots, and IUDs. This means that co-payments, which have long been a barrier to many women accessing contraception, will no longer be an issue for women with health insurance!

This historic shift is due in LARGE part to your incredible work reaching out to elected officials and members of the Obama administration, sending letters, and collecting petitions on this issue. Your efforts helped to ensure that the needs of women were the center of this debate — despite conservative attempts to derail the process through manufactured controversy and intentional misinformation. Here at Advocates for Youth, we know — as you do — that contraception is preventive care...and now insurance plans will reflect this basic reality!

We're excited to announce the Red Hot+ video contest, a joint project of Amplify and the Red Hot Organization.

Red Hot+ is an opportunity for young artists and filmmakers to explore our unique experiences growing up with and being impacted by HIV and AIDS. More than two decades after the HIV/AIDS crisis began, our generation has its own stories to tell. Love stories and elegies, as well as tales of quiet defiance, stigma, and public confrontation. Through original short films and PSAs, we hope that the Red Hot+ contest will help spark a new conversation about HIV and AIDS.

We have some great prizes lined up for this contest. Four winners will receive a $2,500 cash prize and a trip to New York City, where their films will be featured as a part of the Red Hot Organization's 20th anniversary celebration during World AIDS Day 2011.

by Sarah Audelo, Senior Manager, Domestic Policy

In a new report, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has called for birth control to be available without a co-pay for all U.S. health insurance plans.

As the Affordable Care Act (health care reform) starts to take effect, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) asked the independent, non-partisan Institute of Medicine to recommend additional preventive care services that all women should be entitled to at no cost under their insurance plans. These recommendations from the IOM are a critical first step — but their recommendations must now be formally accepted and implemented by HHS and the Obama Administration.

Tell the Department of Health and Human Services AND President Obama to stand up for women and accept these recommendations from the Institute of Medicine.

If enacted, the Institute of Medicine's recommendations will have an enormous impact on the health and lives of women — particularly young women — across the U.S.