Faith Keller

Professor Ron Christiansen

ENGL 1010

April 17, 2018

Should All Women Have Access to Affordable Birth Control?

There has been a recent debate regarding a mandate from the Department of Health and

Human Services during the Obama administration. The mandate required employers to provide

insurance coverage for birth control, or the employer to notify the government that they were

opting out so women could seek contraception through government funded programs like

Medicaid. There were a lot of people that agreed with the mandate, but there were others that

objected. Those that objected said it was an assault on their religious liberty. There were others

that were more in the middle. That group believed that while all women should have access to

affordable birth control, the cost should not be shifted to someone else such as an insurance

company or the government.

Another group that supports the mandate has a variety of reasons for their belief. In her

article “Reducing Poverty by Cutting Unplanned Births” Isabel Sawhill discusses the correlation

between unplanned pregnancies and poverty. She goes on to say that women that get pregnant

before they are financially and mentally ready are more likely to stay in the lower class . Sawhill

also argued that women that have access to birth control and better family planning are more

successful. In “A Wellness Perspective on Birth Control: Education is Better than Ignorance” the

author argues that things have changed and birth control is necessary for family planning because

almost half of all pregnancies are unplanned.

 Those opposed to the mandate argue that it affects their religious freedom. Employers

with religious or moral objections to birth control believe that they should not be required to

provide insurance coverage for birth control and that the option to opt out but not notify the

government is not a reasonable accommodation. In “Birth Control at the Supreme Court: Does

Free Coverage Violate Religious Freedom?” Nina Totenberg examines the argument by the Little

Sisters of the Poor, a religious organization that did not agree with providing coverage for their

employees and were not satisfied with the option to opt out. They argued that their name would

still be on it, and they did not want their name associated with birth control (Totenberg).

In “The Continuing Threat to Religious Liberty” author Ryan Anderson mentions a

Supreme Court case regarding a baker that did not agree with same sex marriage and compares it

to the birth control debate. Anderson mentions the religious organizations affected by the HHS

mandate, and argues that the mandate may cause these organizations to lose tax exempt status

and therefore cause them issues financially.

Still another group believes in affordable birth control, but they have slightly different

views than the first group. The argument in this case is that while birth control should be made

more affordable, it should not be done by just shifting the cost to someone else. In “End the Ban

on Over-The-Counter Oral Contraceptives” author Jeffrey Singer states that making oral

contraceptives available over the counter would reduce the cost by eliminating the doctor’s visit

to get a prescription because pharmacists would be able to prescribe them.

After researching the question, I agree with the HHS mandate. In “The High Costs of

Birth Control” there is a chart with the costs of the different types of birth control. It had a chart

that broke down the costs of different types of birth control from the pill to sterilization. It really

drew attention to the issue, and made me think about the women that cannot afford it by
themselves. If they cannot afford birth control on their own, then they are not going to be able to

support a child. I also think that because organizations were provided with the option to opt out

as long as they notified the government it is reasonable. They do not have to provide coverage

they just have to notify the government so women employed by these groups still have access to

affordable birth control.

Exploring the different views on birth control access really drew attention to the issue. I

did not realize how many people were affected by lack of birth control or difficulty paying for it,

and I did not realize that there were people that were fighting back against the solution that the

Obama Administration had come up with.

Works Cited

Anderson, Ryan. “The Continuing Threat to Religious Liberty.” The Heritage Foundation,

www.heritage.org/religious-liberty/commentary/the-continuing-threat-religious-liberty.

"A Wellness Perspective on Birth Control: Education Is Better Than Ignorance."

Electronic Ardell Wellness Report (E-AWR), 03 May 2002, p. 3. EBSCOhost,

libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=f6h&AN=6628792&site=eds-live.

Rogers, Melissa. "New Trump Contraception Rules Not a Win-win Solution." Brookings.

October 13, 2017. Accessed April 06, 2018.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/10/13/new-trump-contraception-rules-not-a-win-

win-solution/.

Sawhill, Isabel V. “Reducing Poverty by Cutting Unplanned Births.” Brookings,

Brookings, 21 Aug. 2015, www.brookings.edu/opinions/reducing-poverty-by-cutting-unplanned-

births/.

Singer, Jeffrey A. “End the Ban on Over-The-Counter Oral Contraceptives.” Cato

Institute, 19 Dec. 2017, www.cato.org/publications/commentary/end-ban-over-counter-oral-

contraceptives.

“The High Costs of Birth Control.” Center for American Progress, 17 Feb. 2012,

www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2012/02/15/11054/the-high-costs-of-birth-

control/.

Totenberg, Nina. "Birth Control At The Supreme Court: Does Free Coverage Violate

Religious Freedom?" NPR. March 23, 2016. Accessed April 6, 2018.

https://www.npr.org/2016/03/23/471003272/birth-control-at-the-supreme-court-does-free-

coverage-violate-religious-freedom.

"Zubik v. Burwell." Accessed April 6, 2018. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-

1418_8758.pdf.