Birth Control: Will It Become the Ultimate Luxury?
When I was 16, I decided to get on birth control. My high school boyfriend and I were champing at the bit to do the deed, and I wanted to act responsibly (high five to my teenage self!). Back then, for me, that meant taking the pill. And since I had less-than-zero intention of sharing my desire to become sexually active with my busy single mom, I hightailed it to a Planned Parenthood in a neighboring New Jersey town. There, a doctor discussed my options with me, conducted a pelvic exam—my first—and dispensed a prescription. It was a seamless, formative experience.
Fast-forward to today. While a slew of women (some of them peers I know and admire) have bravely, publicly acknowledged that they’ve had abortions, I have a different confession: I’ve never been pregnant. A big reason is that I’ve had easy access to affordable birth control.
Why am I revealing this non-news? Because while much of the reproductive-rights conversation is centered on abortion, the Supreme Court is now poised to wage war on your birth control—the very thing that prevents the need for an abortion.
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When I was 16, I decided to get on birth control. My high school boyfriend and I were champing at the bit to do the deed, and I wanted to act responsibly (high five to my teenage self!). Back then, for me, that meant taking the pill. And since I had less-than-zero intention of sharing my desire to become sexually active with my busy single mom, I hightailed it to a Planned Parenthood in a neighboring New Jersey town. There, a doctor discussed my options with me, conducted a pelvic exam—my first—and dispensed a prescription. It was a seamless, formative experience.
Fast-forward to today. While a slew of women (some of them peers I know and admire) have bravely, publicly acknowledged that they’ve had abortions, I have a different confession: I’ve never been pregnant. A big reason is that I’ve had easy access to affordable birth control.
Why am I revealing this non-news? Because while much of the reproductive-rights conversation is centered on abortion, the Supreme Court is now poised to wage war on your birth control—the very thing that prevents the need for an abortion. |
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