Birth Control: Benefits Should Be Free For All Women

Abbie, a freshman at the University of Phoenix, visited her doctor over the summer to help regulate her period. Since she was 16 years old, she has struggled with irregularity and bad cramps. She is also not sexually active and will only be on the pill for her period. After consulting with her doctor, she decided that birth control would be the safest and smartest way to help regulate her period. Her doctor prescribed a pack of pills monthly that she can pick up at her local pharmacy. As Abbie was going over her insurance with the receptionist, she hit a speed bump on the way. Her mom has Abbie under her insurance until she is twenty-six, but birth control is not covered because her mom works at a Catholic high school. Because of this, she has to pay out of pocket cost every month, which is around twenty-five to thirty dollars. It may not seem like a lot of money, but she is a full-time student with no income and is trying to save money to cover the costs of her education just like every other college student.

Opening and Introduction to Topic

Birth control should be covered by health insurance companies because it not only prevents pregnancies but is a prescription that helps women with irregular periods, reduced cramping and acne, and helps young women practice safe sex. A lot of young women are on birth control and are going through college or just got done that they do not have a fixed income to purchase certain contraceptives through their pharmacy every month. For this reason, all women should be entitled to birth control and have their health insurance companies provide the coverage they need so that they do not have to pay every month. Think about it, it would cost more for them to provide coverage for hospital bills than paying for contraceptives every month, so it is something they need to consider. While some Catholic schools and hospitals deny the majority of reproductive health services to all women, they make them pay more than they should be, which in my opinion is wrong. It is a preventive measure and should not cost any money. Although birth control is a preventative measure, most health insurance plans do not cover birth control and certain contraceptives.

Status Quo

Given the current situation of birth control with the Trump administration wanting it to be in the hands of employers and deciding whether it should be covered by moral and religious beliefs, has people to believe that it is the employer's right to refrain from providing insurance for their employee’s health. Others believe that birth control should be provided in their health insurance plans because it is a preventive measure. Obama created the Affordable Care Act, which must allow health insurance plans to cover contraceptives while in a network without making any payments. More women today benefit from this access without having to make co-payments and preventing unwanted pregnancies that help create safe sex for women who are not ready for children at the moment. But the new laws the Trump administration is making is affecting all women’s health needs especially those who rely on birth control to treat medical conditions other than pregnancies. Some women cannot get pregnant because of a condition they have that could potentially kill them, so they need to be on birth control. Plenty of women who do not pay for contraceptives including me could potentially lose this benefit of having to make co-payments every month.

Common Knowledge

The way I see the current situation is that when Trump establishes a new law concerning employers who are entitled to deny birth control for moral and religious beliefs, it should not have to apply to their employees because birth control is right for women. The employer should not refuse birth control from one of their employees because they believe it is wrong to be on birth control or not because it is not part of their religion. Everyone has different beliefs, but birth control should not have to be involved with it even though it is something many churches do believe in. With the Affordable Care Act being under the Obama administration, I believe that it should stay in place because several women do not pay anything for their birth control and would like it to stay that way. I am a full-time college student and if the law changes, I would not be able to afford it because I can only work so much until I have to transfer to another school that is full time as well.

Key Terms

• Contraceptives are another name for birth control, that’s purpose is to prevent pregnancies. 
• Health insurance is an insurance that covers part of or the whole amount of medical and surgical payments.
• Co-payments are a certain amount of money you pay when you receive a type of service. 
• A Preventative measure is intended to or hinder something from happening.
• Birth Control implant is a small rod that is implanted into the arm.
• IUD is a device that is inserted into the uterus to help protect against pregnancy.
• The Depo-Provera is a shot given every to you every three months.
• The pill is an oral contraceptive that is taken every day at the same time.
• NuvaRing is a ring that is worn in the vagina.
• Ovaries are a female reproductive organ that makes and release eggs.
• Birth control sponge is inserted in your vagina before you have sex.
• Androgens are male sex hormones.

History

In 1916, Margaret Sanger was the first person to open a clinic in the United States for birth control. A year later she was found guilty because she was maintaining a public nuisance and was arrested for 30 days in jail. Eventually, she was able to open her clinic again and continue on with life. In 1938 a federal judge lifted the ban on birth control and Sanger was able to make the first birth control raising one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. After that, many contraceptives were made like the IUD, Norplant- first Implant, the Depo-Provera shot and the vagina ring. Women were able to have safe sex without any fear that they would end up pregnant. Now according to very well health, “More than 10 million women today are on birth control”. If it were not for the women's suffrage movement, which demands birth control as a women's right, I would say that as of today, women would not have many birth control rights.

Con 1

Most people believe that their health insurance plans should not cover birth control. If birth control is paid by insurance companies, the method is free for most women. But the cost will eventually rise because they're the ones who pay for it. They believe that insurance should not be used for regular expenditure, such as car insurance, which does not cover gasoline, so birth control should not be covered by health insurance. If that happened, the markets for those items would become less competitive and the cost of the product would increase. Some believe that it is not fair that if you are able to afford contraceptives on your own, than the insurance companies should not have co-share with you. But, if you are able to pay for birth control every month, the basic forms are quite cheap. Contraceptives should not be free because making them free would raise the cost of it and unnecessarily force others to pay for it including those with moral and religious beliefs.

Pro 1

I say that health insurance companies need to be a little nicer when it comes to reproductive care for women. Most women cannot afford to pay for their contraceptives on their own because they are either are in college with no income or are in the low and middle class where money is just too tight for them. According to Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America says, “Millions of women, especially young women, struggle every day to afford prescription birth control.” That’s almost half of the United States that can not afford birth control. This is why birth control should be free to all women because a great number of women have unplanned pregnancies every year because they could not afford certain contraceptives. In two thousand and one, they did a survey that found that forty-nine percent of unintended pregnancies were reported. Most health insurance companies partially cover certain contraceptives like the Pill, IUD, or the birth control implant, and require you to pay the other half of the co-payment amount. If certain endorsements are called to the Institute of Medicine Committee's and are acceptable by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it will make life so much easier for women. They will no longer have to make out of pocket cost for birth control and other contraceptives and have unintended pregnancies.

Con 2

The Trump administration is putting birth control in the hands of most employers for moral and religious beliefs. The new rule Trump is proposing is that any company has the option to deny the coverage of certain contraceptives if it is for a moral and religious belief. President Trump created this change for the religious order of The Little Sisters of the Poor. When Obama was president, the nuns had sued him because he made birth control free for all women as long as they were in network with their health insurance. But according to Palanker, “A lot of women will retain birth control coverage but there will be a lot of women who will lose that coverage due to a large number of private companies.' This means that women will have to pay out of pocket cost every month. For example, a month supply of pills will cost a person four to fifty-five dollars depending on the type of insurance you have. For certain contraceptives inserted in the uterus, it can cost more than a thousand dollars.

Pro 2

The new rule the Trump administration has proposed is bias to all women. According to Sarah Lipton-Lubet, a vice president at the National Partnership for Women and Families says, “Women shouldn't be denied access to basic health care based on their employers' religious beliefs. We all have the right to our religious beliefs but the way that this rule treats religion is really an excuse to discriminate.' I agree with her on this. It should not be up to the employers to deny most reproductive care because they have different beliefs than we do. We have the right to believe in what we think is right for us, not the employer. When trump proposed the new law in May, many advocates of religious beliefs and those for equal rights for women started bumping heads. The new law Trump proposed violated the fourth teen amendment, which states that people receive equal protection under the law. Not long after that, Hobby Lobby was protesting for private companies objecting birth control rights for religious beliefs. They have no access to birth control, not even through the Affordable Care Act. I believe that every woman should have access to birth control because it has so many ways in helping them, that not everyone knows about. We want women to have safe sex and not have unplanned pregnancies or be on birth control to help treat medical conditions. Girls want to have regular periods and want to feel pretty if they have a dress on with no acne. Also, they do not want to skip school because cramps are so bad. Birth control wants to help with every problem woman have to deal with every day and is not something employers should deny because it is our right to have. If you are an employer and have female employees, just keep in mind what they have to go through every day. Maybe even put yourself in their shoes and see want it is like to be a woman and have certain rights taken away.

Con 3

When it comes to birth control, people have different beliefs about the advantages birth control serves. Estrogen and progesterone are common in certain contraceptives that stop your ovaries from ovulating. Thick mucus is built up so sperm cannot pass to the cervix and cause a pregnancy. This often disrupts your hormones by setting them off and sometimes even your ph. balance. When your hormones get messed up, your body can change a lot and sometimes feel depressed. That's a common reason why women choose not to be on it. Another belief woman have is that they feel like they will get fat if they are on it. They like where their body is at the moment and do not want to change. The one I hear a lot is that it can cause cancer. According to cancer.gov, “An analysis of data from more than 150,000 women who participated in 54 epidemiologic studies showed that, overall, women who had ever used oral contraceptives had a slight (7%) increase in the relative risk of breast cancer compared with women who had never used oral contraceptives. Women who were currently using oral contraceptives had a 24% increase in risk that did not increase with the duration of use”. Because the pill contains female hormones, there is a risk for breast cancer. The final belief most women interpret about birth control is that if they do not use it, they are not at risk of getting pregnant. Most women who had unexpected pregnancies said that if they did not use certain contraceptives than they couldn’t get pregnant.

Pro 3

In my opinion, I believe that there are many advantages to using birth control. Not only can you use it to not get pregnant, but when you are ready to start a family you can stop using it at any point of time. Your hormones do get fluctuated because you are using a contraceptive that is inhibiting the body to not get pregnant and stopping it from ovulating. But if you are on birth control, you may experience lighter bleeding or no bleeding at all as some birth control methods like the Depo- Provera shot completely stops your period. You may also have less pain during your period. What’s great about birth control is that there are so many contraceptives to choose from that are available for you to fit all your needs. If you have a medical condition such as endometriosis, birth control is perfect for you or if you have a condition that if you get pregnant again, there is a chance you or your baby could die then this is an option for you. Another plus of being on birth control is that it gets rid of acne for you. A woman is who not on birth control has her ovaries and adrenal glands produce a low level of androgens. Taking birth control pills, for example, contain estrogen and progesterone that lowers the number of androgens in the body, making less acne appear on this skin. There is a side effect of weight gain if you are on the Depo- Provera shot. So, if you do not plan on gaining a lot of weight while on birth control, I would suggest going on a low dosage birth control like the Pill. With any birth control method, you choose to be on, there is always some risk. There have been studies that have shown that birth control can lead to cancer or pelvic inflammatory disease, but the rates are low that it is fine to use. Furthermore, you can get pregnant if you do not use condoms or are on any contraceptive, so if you are sexually active, think about being put on birth control. Condoms are not always a hundred percent effective and can break easily, so it is always good to have a backup plan. Most birth control methods are free and are easy to get access too.