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Both houses of Congress are moving to guarantee greater access to contraceptives for women in the military, actions that lawmakers say are prompted in part by concern about unplanned pregnancies in the armed forces. The annual defense policy bill, passed on Friday by the House, says military clinics and hospitals must be able to dispense any method of contraception approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Women have complained that they are sometimes unable to obtain contraceptives prescribed by their doctors, especially when they are deployed overseas. (Pear, 5/19)

A federal court again denied the University of Notre Dame’s challenge to the health law’s contraception provision, saying a compromise arrangement offered by the Obama administration appears adequate to meet the Catholic institution’s religious objections to covering birth control for students and staff. Notre Dame has been fighting the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most employers include contraception in health plans with no out-of-pocket costs, arguing that the federal government is forcing it to violate its beliefs. (Radnofsky and Kendall, 5/19)

Two former students in a Florida community college ultrasound program say they were punished for objecting to a policy that encouraged students to undergo an invasive vaginal procedure to become better technicians. The two unnamed female students filed a federal lawsuit last week against Valencia State College in Orlando, claiming the policy violated their civil rights under the First and Fourth amendments. (Schneider, 5/19)