The Rhode Island Senate on Friday approved legislation sponsored by Sen. Dawn Euer that would require insurers to keep covering contraception in the state even if the coverage requirements in the Affordable Care Act are overturned.
Euer, D-Newport, said the need for the bill has grown over the years she has introduced it. “When I first introduced this legislation, colleagues questioned why it was necessary, on the grounds that something as essential as birth control would always remain covered,” she said. “But in the last few years the opposition to all forms of reproductive rights and health care access has strengthened and polarized, and our federal health policy has grown more and more detached from good science and best medical practices.”
Euer said the Senate has repeatedly voted to advance the legislation in past years and urged colleagues to enshrine the protections in state law “before it’s too late.”
The bill (2026-S 2254) would require health insurers to continue offering no-cost contraceptives regardless of federal action. Insurers would have to cover all contraceptive drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration or, when safe and appropriate, their generic equivalents. Coverage would also be required for devices and other products, voluntary sterilization procedures, patient education and counseling, and follow-up services.
Patients could not be charged a deductible or copay for those services, with an exception for those with qualifying high-deductible plans. The bill would also require Medicaid to cover a 12-month supply of contraceptives.
Before 2010, more than one in five women paid out-of-pocket costs for contraceptives, often amounting to an estimated 30% to 44% of their total health care spending, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That year, President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law. The law requires insurers to provide many preventive services, including contraceptives, at no cost, though some religious employers are exempt from providing the coverage.
Access to no-cost contraceptives improves a range of women’s health and economic outcomes, including higher wages, reduced rates of entry into poverty and increased rates of entry into professional school or the labor force, according to a report from the federal Office of Health Policy.
The ACA has faced more than 2,000 legal challenges over the past 14 years, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The U.S. Supreme Court weakened the law’s contraceptive coverage requirements twice — in 2014’s Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and in 2020’s Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. Cases further challenging the requirements remain active in the federal courts.
The bill now goes to the House, where Rep. Karen Alzate, D-Pawtucket, has introduced companion legislation (2026-H 7323).
