Contraceptive equity: the Birth Control Center of the International Workers Order

Abstract

The Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act, introduced in Congress in 1997 and still unpassed, seeks to redress health insurers' failure to pay for birth control as they pay for other prescription drugs, most paradoxically Viagra. In 1936 the International Workers Order (IWO), a fraternal society, became the first insurer to include contraception in its benefits package. A forerunner in the movement for prepaid medical care, the IWO offered its members primary care and contraceptive services for annual flat fees. Founded at a time when the legal status of contraception was in flux, the IWO's Birth Control Center was the only such clinic to operate on an insurance system. Recent state laws and judicial actions have revived the IWO's groundbreaking view of contraception as a basic preventive service deserving of insurance coverage.

Figure 1

Reaping the benefits (political cartoon). Source. Fraternal Outlook, 1947, reprinted by permission of the New York Public Library.

Figure 2

Flier for International Workers Order insurance. Source. International Workers Order Records, Kheel Center, Cornell University.

Figure 3

Birth Control Federation of America poster linking contraception to other control technologies. Source. Planned Parenthood Federation of America Records, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College.