The Green Timberwolf

Keep Your Hands Off My Birth Control, Period.

Blogged by Kyla

For our first blog post, Ms. McLeod challenged us to choose a topic that spoke to us; something that we felt needed to be addressed and brought to light. For me, that topic is the reproductive rights of women. Reproductive rights of women can cover a wide array of topic, including but not limited to: the Pink Tax, cost of feminine hygiene products, accessibility to birth control as well as legislation regarding abortion. Since women’s rights to their body is such a broad topic, I’m going to narrow my scope to accessibility to birth control and contraceptives.

Here in Canada, pill form birth control is a normal part of life. Many women take it for many different reasons but this wasn’t always the case; Birth control has only been legally implemented as a form of contraceptive in Canada since 1969, when Pierre Elliott Trudeau passed legislation to lift the ban.

Now, Canada sees birth control as a non-essential medication that can be administered at women’s health clinics, ranging from free to $10 a month. Although we do not have a perfect system, My research is going to focus on the status of birth control in the United States.

The climate around birth control in the US right now is turbulent at best. During his administration, Barack Obama made it mandatory for birth control to be covered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and of course, President Trump is planning on changing that. If he’s successful Donald Trump’s plan will give insurance providers, and even employers, a say on whether they want to cover a woman's birth control under their insurance plan. Officials that this is upholding a business’ First Amendment right, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;...”. In layman's terms, in regard to the issue of birth control, this means if you have a religious boss they can wiggle their way out of covering your birth control. It is estimated that in 2016 the ACA saved “a total of about $1.4 billion dollars per year in out-of-pocket savings for women across [The United States]”.

Unlike in Canada, people in the US can throw themselves into debt over hospital bills; some people just can’t justify spending 100 dollars or more on birth control, which is more than just affecting their sex lives. According to a Huffington Post article,“More than half of pill users, 58 percent, rely on the method at least in part for purposes other than pregnancy prevention. Thirty-one percent use it for cramps or menstrual pain, 28 percent for menstrual regulation, 14 percent for acne, 4 percent for endometriosis…”. Now for those who don’t know, endometriosis is “an often painful disorder in which tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus — the endometrium — grows outside your uterus”. Politicians telling women to just have less sex is not addressing the whole issue. Many don’t use contraceptives for sex related reasons; they use it so that they can function when they’re on their periods.

I don’t know about you, but I want politicians to keep their hands off of my reproductive rights. Period.

Contraceptive poster citation: All you need to know about birth control methods. (2016, January 05). Retrieved October 17, 2017, from https://www.reliablerxpharmacy.com/blog/need-know-birth-control-methods/\

References

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.reliablerxpharmacy.com/blog/need-know-birth-control-methods/

Canada lags behind other nations in birth control access, and it's costing us | Metro News. (2016, January 12). Retrieved from http://www.metronews.ca/life/health/2016/01/11/canada-birth-control-policy-needs-overhaul.html

Endometriosis. (2016, August 20). Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/endometriosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20354656

Kessler, G. (2014, March 31). Do 60 percent of women use ‘birth control’ for something other than family planning? Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/31/the-claim-that-60-percent-of-women-use-birth-control-for-something-other-than-family-planning/

O'Connor, E. (n.d.). The Trump Administration Will Let Employers Drop Birth Control Coverage For Religious Or Moral Reasons. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/emaoconnor/trump-administration-contraception-mandate-rules

Press, T. C. (2010, May 10). Birth-control pill turns 50. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/birth-control-pill-turns-50-1.908892

Staff, L. (2009, November 17). U.S. Constitution. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/overview