Friday, July 18, 2014

Lets Talk About Birth Control, Again

All of this talk about birth control in the news had really gotten me fired up. So this talk about birth control is going to be a little bit different than our last one. 

Did you guys read/hear about the Supreme Court decision that private companies do not have provide their employees with insurance that covers birth control?

Can I get a collective WHAT THE WHAT?

You should all read this article about Ruth Bader Ginsberg's dissent from the 5-4 decision. 

Did you notice that ALL 5 males on the court voted to allow companies to not provide contraception to their employees, and all 4 women dissented? 

How is viagra covered and birth control not?

I get that a company has religious affiliations. But what if not everyone working at that organization is a part of that religion? How is that not inflicting on our rights as human beings? I am a religious person. While I don't agree with some women's choices of birth control, I still believe in their right to make that choice for themself. 
                                
All of this is supremely frustrating to me. I just don't understand how in this modern age we are still fighting this fight. We as women are still having to fight for the right to make choices about our own bodies. How is it legal for our employer or the government or anyone to tell us what we can and cannot do, and what medicines should or should not be covered when it comes to our own bodies?

I lost insurance last year for over 6 months and had to pay out of pocket for birth control. I had to switch birth controls because the one I was on was too expensive to pay for anymore. Birth Control can be really expensive without insurance, and it can add up fast month after month.
                                 
I just don't understand. How can a company not provide you with medicine? Birth control saves lives. Birth control saved my life. When I was 15 I was hospitalized for menorrhagia, had to receive a blood transfusion and was literally hours away from dying. Do you know what prevents that from happening again? Birth control. When I was 18 I went off birth control for two years to see if my body would be able to regulate itself hormonally. After three months straight of bleeding I had to go back on birth control. Birth control saved my life. How can that not be considered medicine that is necessary for all companies to offer on their insurance plans?

All of the pictures in this post are from this wonderful post on Buzzfeed, where they asked why women take birth control.
But does it really matter why we take birth control? We are human beings and we should be allowed to make our own medical decisions. Not everyone even has to agree with our decisions. That's the whole point of having agency, right?
                                

2 comments:

Monica Lynn said...

Though I agree that women should have access to these medications that have many medical uses besides birth control, the ruling wasn't over if employees would have access to them. The ruling determined that the owners of the companies wouldn't have to pay for things that goes against their moral obligations. There are options to maintain access to the medications but not force someone to pay for something that is against their beliefs. In fact, they actually only had objections to four of the twenty contraceptions types covered in the ACA. I feel like rhetoric is portraying a lot of sound bites as facts and skewing what the ruling was really about. Just my two cents.

Tanika said...

I disagree with ^^. Ruth Bader Ginsberg dissent covered everything, basically. If we start allowing companies to stop doing things because of their moral obligations and what not, where does that line end? "I can't hire Jews because it's against my moral obligation." "I can't pay for blood transfusions because it's against my moral obligations." It's ridiculous and this is a very very scary road.

The attack on women and their reproductive rights has got to stop. SO MANY women take birth control for MEDICAL reasons, not just to stop pregnancy. And coming from a strong GOP hold in politics who are strictly pro-life, you think they'd be happy about less women wanting abortions because of un-planned pregnancies. This measure, I am sure, will cause MORE un-planned pregnancies because women won't be able to afford OUTRAGEOUS cost of birth control.

This ruling is complete and utter nonsense. Men have NO right ruling on anything to do with a women's reproductive system and what should or should not be done with it. Fascist, sexist, bigot a-holes.

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