I was proud to share the stories of my friends at Georgetown Law who have suffered dire medical consequences because our student insurance does not cover contraception for the purpose of preventing pregnancy.

Thankfully President Obama has stood firmly behind women's health care issues by supporting coverage for contraception and reaffirming commitment to organizations like Planned Parenthood.

The truth is women use contraception not only as a way to prevent unintended pregnancies but also to improve their health and the health of their families. Increased access to contraception is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality.

Think for a moment about what Obamacare has done: The federal government has come up with its own (ever-evolving) definition of 'health insurance ' which now includes free access to sterilization contraception and certain abortifacients such as the morning-after pill.

It is essential that the women's preventive coverage benefit including contraception be available to all women regardless of what health plan they have or where they work - as Congress intended. Providing access to birth control just makes good sense.

For most women including women who want to have children contraception is not an option it is a basic health care necessity.

The freedom that women were supposed to have found in the Sixties largely boiled down to easy contraception and abortion things to make life easier for men in fact.

You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal safe abortion.