Male Contraception Initiative and World Vasectomy Day Create Petition to Demand Vasectomies Be Covered Under the Affordable Care Act

    DURHAM, NC, November 13, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- In honor of the third World Vasectomy Day, Male Contraception Initiative and World Vasectomy Day are petitioning the US Secretary of Health and Human Services to include vasectomies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This petition will complement the thousands of vasectomies being organized over the globe in this single day.

While the ACA requires insurers to fully cover all female contraceptives without co-pay, it omits male contraceptives entirely. The average condom user experiences an annual one-in-six pregnancy rate. This makes a vasectomy by far the best option for men done having children.

World Vasectomy Day organizer Jonathan Stack explained why he became inspired to co-found World Vasectomy Day: "Along the road I became inspired to support the bigger mission, dreaming up World Vasectomy Day as way to celebrate the men who get vasectomies, their families, and partners who support them."

Last year the event had 500 doctors in 32 countries perform an estimated 3,000 vasectomies, which made World Vasectomy Day 2014 the largest male-oriented family planning event in history.

And for such a large event celebrating family planning, it makes the collaborative petition for vasectomy inclusion under the ACA all the more timely. "Ignoring half the population when it comes to family planning makes no sense. This blunder needs immediate correction," said Male Contraception Initiative executive director Aaron Hamlin.

World Vasectomy Day will kick off in Indonesia this year, but it will still be streamed live for everyone at the organization's website. Both organizations are asking everyone who believes in family planning to celebrate the day by watching the stream live and by signing the petition to include men under the ACA. The petition can be found at Change.org.

Male Contraception Initiative is a nonprofit that pushes to make available new and existing male contraceptives.

# # #