COLUMN: Paying for pills
Right now many religious leaders and organizations are up in arms about the possibility of being forced to offer insurance plans covering birth control for their employees.
But simply put, belief and faith are not valid reasons to deny someone vital health care.
My mom works for a Catholic hospital. My family is not Catholic. Should our health care be determined by someone else’s beliefs?
When I was 18 years old I mustered up the courage to ask my mom if I could go on the pill. My heart raced as I waited to hear her response, hoping to avoid judgment and avoid crushing her. But what came next almost broke my heart.
Tears welled up in her eyes and for a second I wanted to take back my request, but then she spoke. She told me she couldn’t afford the extra expense and her Catholic employers would not pay a penny for it.
My mother had been working at a hospital for 25 years. I knew how wonderful our insurance was. I knew our co-pays were low and almost everything was covered. I just assumed the pill was no different.
But the pill was the exception, the thing they would not touch.
This was shocking and disturbing to me. What right did they have? My mother wanted to provide something for me, something that her insurance should and could have covered, but they chose not to.
I don’t think employers should have that choice. Employees should have the choice of what they want to spend their health care coverage on.
In the United States today birth control is a huge part of women’s health care. To deny coverage based on religious conscious is not only wrong, but ridiculous.
It is worth noting that birth control is not the satanic pill reserved only for the jezebels and floozies of the country that some ultra-conservatives make it out to be. The pill is not just for preventing unwanted children.
A study last year based on U.S government data from the National Survey of Family Growth found that of the women that use birth control, 86 percent use it for pregnancy prevention, but other reasons were also given. The pill is used to reduce cramps or menstrual pain in 31 percent of its users. Another common alternative reason for taking the pill was for the treatment of acne, which 14 percent listed.
Opponents to covering the pill may have their minds blown even more when they hear that the study found 762,000 women who have never had sex use the pill, with 99 percent doing so for noncontraceptive reasons.
Birth control is important for women. I can almost guarantee that more women in the United States use it or have used it compared to a minority that doesn’t or hasn’t. It’s not going away, so pay up and support women’s health. Just swallow that pill and get over it.
