Birth control and other forms of contraceptives have been under attack for many years, but the battle cries have become much louder since the Trump Administration took office in 2016. Throughout the course of his presidency, President Trump has vowed to end the Affordable Care Act. Subsequently enough, the Affordable Care Act guarantees no-copay birth control coverages. Without the Affordable Care Act, 57 percent of women between the ages of 18-34 would find it difficult to pay for birth control, according to plannedparenthood.com. However, President Trump is not the only one leading the campaign to end affordable birth control for all. First things first, what is birth control and why do women use it? According to womenshealth.gov, birth control is a method, medicine, or device used to prevent pregnancy. Birth control is not a drug that causes abortion. Birth control pills and other forms of birth control work to prevent the release of an egg; therefore, birth control prevents pregnancy before it happens. An abortion ends a pregnancy. Not everyone uses birth control as a contraceptive either. For some women, the use birth control to regulate their periods, improve menstrual cramps, treat polycystic ovary syndrome, and so much more according to youngwomenshealth.org. The attack on birth control started way before the Trump Administration took office but has continued to come under fire in recent years. First, let’s back up to 2014 the most recent restart to the birth control conversation in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, according to oyez.org. The owners of Hobby Lobby sued then Secretary of Department of Health and Human
Services after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act stated that employers must provide employees certain types of contraceptive care. Hobby Lobby, which is a Christian based for- profit store, argued that the plan violated the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. In a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court, it was decided that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allows for-profit companies to deny its employees coverage of contraceptives based on religious objections by the company’s owners. Since that ruling, there have been other court cases, supreme and local, that have created decisive blows against birth control. Since the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case, we have entered a new administration that has continued to make getting access to birth control much more challenging for women across America. Let’s first look at the Title X Gag Rule that the Trump-Pence Administration put into place in 2019. First, Title X is a program which provides doctors the ability to provide affordable birth control and reproductive health care to patients with low income and who could not independently afford health care services. The Gag Rule makes it extremely challenging, nearly impossible, for women to get affordable birth control from organizations like Planned Parenthood. The Gag Rule also bans doctors and health care providers from giving women complete information about their sexual and reproductive health care options, according to plannedparenthood.com. Now, while federal players are extremely important, let’s look at the states. According to powertodecide.org, of the 19 million women in the US who have reproductive activity live in what is known as a contraceptive desert. In a contraceptive desert, women in certain counties across the United States lack sufficient access to a health care center that provides them a full
range of contraceptive measures. To expand on that 1.5 million of the women in contraceptive deserts do not even have a single health care institute that offers a range of contraceptive options. For women in these contraceptive deserts, finding a trustworthy health care provider that will find the right type of birth control for you is almost impossible. So, what can we do? First, continue to make your voices heard not only in the federal government, but also in your state government as well. Write letters, emails or call your elected representatives and voice your concerns over reproductive rights. Second, continue to educate your community about the fight on reproductive rights that women are facing. They are voters just like you, and by engaging in a conversation about this issue, it could sway someone else to take a stand. Lastly, don’t forget to vote. It doesn’t have to be a big election to make sure your voice gets heard, but a smaller local election. The more officials we have in any office that will fight for women’s reproductive rights the better. This is a terrifying time, but we have to come together and figure out ways to have these discussions and educate others and ourselves on these topics.