Although a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled that Union Pacific Railroad's policy of not providing coverage for contraceptives "is not discriminatory," the company "is likely to spend significantly more for unintended pregnancies than it would have spent on contraceptive coverage," Wayne Shields, president and CEO of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, and James Trussell, director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University, write in a New York Times letter to the editor (Shields/Trussell, New York Times, 3/21). Planned Parenthood Federation of America and two female Union Pacific employees filed a lawsuit that seeks to require the company to provide coverage for FDA-approved prescription contraceptives for female employees and the female family members of male employees covered by the company's health plan. U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp in July 2005 ruled that Union Pacific -- which employs about 49,000 workers nationwide, including 1,300 women -- illegally discriminated against female employees by not providing contraceptive coverage in its health plans. A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court Appeals last week voted 2-1 to overturn Smith Camp's ruling, writing that the contraception coverage provided to women by Union Pacific "is not less favorable than that provided to men" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/19). According to Shields and Trussell, recently published research shows that "direct medical costs of unintended pregnancies" in the U.S. are about $5 billion annually and that "medical cost savings due to contraceptive use were estimated to be $19 billion." The authors write that Union Pacific's policy is "clearly fiscally irresponsible" (New York Times, 3/21).

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