Regulations of Birth Control and Access to Women

If there is time for a battle over the fight for over the counter birth control, the time is now. Obamacare, The Affordable Care Act (ACA), requires most health insurance plans to cover birth control. There are exceptions to this of course, nonprofits, religious buildings, and universities with religious background to not allowing birth control can opt out of covering birth control for their students and employees. (Boston 1) Trumps new course of action can make the number of organizations that don’t provide birth control expand dramatically. Deactivating the ACA’s rule of making every insurance company cover it, now with the constant opt outs any company can just make up a lie to opt out of covering birth control. “Under the new regulations, virtually any non-profit corporation, university, or nonprofit institution can cite religious objections” (Boston 1) any company can now opt out if the claim the “religious” right and fill out a quick piece of paperwork. The government trying to protect itself claimed “anonymous experts” estimates fewer than 200,000, to call that an understatement doesn’t suit it. The National Women’s Law Center estimates that low balling it will be over 62 million women will who use this benefit will no longer get coverage.

Far right religious groups are backing this play saying, “birth control should not be used in general”, this belief is the reasons we have so many unwanted pregnancies.Regulations of Birth Control and Access to Women Abstinence only education is not working, teens are still going to have sex, so we might as well start to teach them how to practice it safely and they should be able to access these products to protect themselves without having to go to the doctor. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is full of anti-abortion men who are now targeting contraceptives. Matt Bowman, a lead figure in the Defying Freedom religious right group who is also the legal adviser for the Department of Health and Human Services, was the key author is writing these regulations saying it defends against religious discrimination. Him “defending himself” is actually discrimination against women and a violation of the first amendment. Backing himself again saying, “There is not one woman who can’t afford birth control”, with insurance companies dropping this in their coverage and an average basic 3-year IUD cost 1,000 dollars to implant but the IUD itself costing 300 dollars with no insurance coverage. “In the 1950s and early ‘60s, Americas United opposed state laws the barred the sale of contraceptive devices… this made it illegal for doctors to talk about contraceptive options even with married couples”, this was shot down by the Supreme Court so why is it not being shot down now. They are slowly making it harder to get birth control, but the Supreme Court is fine with it. (Boston 1)