The United States government recently passed a rule that will hinder 62.4 million women from receiving medication necessary to maintain their health. The Trump administration announced that employers could refuse to cover birth control in their health insurance plan if the provider has moral or religious objections to the medication. This statement undermines the Affordable Care Act’s requirements, put in place by President Obama, to ensure women receive essential health care coverage.
This first step taken by President Trump could be a sign of America slipping into a world reminiscent of “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood. The government has declared that women may not be able to receive necessary medication under their employer’s health care plan. What if the roles were reversed? What if a man walked in for his annual check-up and the doctor concluded he needed to be taking a daily medication? The man then went to work and was informed that due to “religious or moral objections,” along with the OK from our president, he would not receive his medication under the health plan.
The “what if” in this scenario is simply a hypothetical because this would never happen to a male medication in America. In fact, most employee health care plans cover erectile dysfunction medication. Thus, a medication designed to help a man engage in intercourse is covered by healthcare. While, a medication designed to help women decide if they want to have this man’s baby is not.
Yet birth control has more than one use, and society seems to overlook the alternative functions again and again. Birth control is a necessary medication; it is basic healthcare. Birth control can be prescribed such as preventing ovarian cysts, treating endometriosis, balancing hormone deficiency, preventing or helping anemia, bone thinning, acne, serious infections in the ovaries and fallopian tubes and even preventing ovarian and endometrial cancers.
This list proves that birth control is a necessary form of healthcare, although this isn’t a fact that should have to be proved in order for it to be included in healthcare coverage. Why do men get to have erectile dysfunction medication without any questions asked, but women must be told what medication is allowed for them? It doesn’t matter what we are using birth control for, what matters is that it is a medication for our health. We are putting it in our body. And no one should be able to hinder us from obtaining our necessary medication.
If you want to speak out for women’s rights concerning this situation, go to Planned Parenthood’s website.