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The of birth control Anna Wilkinson In most countries, birth control is a universal right for women, yet it is not universally affordable. While the cost of birth control can vary, it can be free, but under limited circumstances. Let’s break down a few forms of birth control. According to Planned Parenthood, birth control pills can cost between $0-$50 dollars a month. If you need an exam to check blood pressure, talk about medical history, or any other exam, that can add another $35-$250 to your payment. Other more extreme forms of birth control, such as abortions, can cost up to $1,500. Some people believe the cheapest form of birth control is condoms. According to Planned Parenthood, boxes of three cost about $2 -$6. Compared to other cheap methods, it is still not free and can add up over time. Some other forms of birth control considered an “emergency contraceptive” are more costly at $40 -$50. Luckily, because of the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans must cover all birth control methods at no cost. However, some plans only cover certain brands of pills or generic versions. Your health insurance provider can tell you which types of birth control they pay for. According to the CPS ASEC, in 2019, 26.1 million people did not have health insurance at any point during the year. In 2019 a report showed that the percentage of people who had health insurance that covered all or most costs was 92 percent. Even if birth control is free of financial cost, it can leave costly effects on the body. The first thing society lacks in understanding is that women can take birth control for many things, not just as a contraceptive. For example, many women use birth control to prevent acne, bone thinning, cysts, iron deficiency, and PMS (premenstrual syndrome) to make periods more convenient. Knowing all of these various
reasons birth control is used, it would be assumed that an advanced form of birth control works for everyone. But for many women, the side effects do more harm than good. More extreme side effects of taking birth control include severe stomach aches, migraines, blurred vision, and shortness of breath. Many girls at Carlmont have talked about how our sex education curriculum doesn’t teach us about the cost financially or physically - that birth control can have. A primarily held complaint about this course is that it focuses on pregnancy prevention and scares us away from it over anything else. “Most of what I learned from sex education was where to put birth control on your body and how effective they are at preventing pregnancy. But there are so many reasons why someone would choose or need to take birth control that is completely unrelated to pregnancy,” said Keya Arora, a senior. This can be a factor many people don’t understand, that birth control isn’t used just to prevent pregnancy such as acne, preventing period cramps, or regulating one’s period. If someone uses birth control for any other reason besides preventing pregnancy, it eliminates their ability to use cheaper forms of birth control. “Going on birth control isn’t a light-hearted or easy decision, and I feel like they don’t explain in enough detail the effects birth control can have in our sex education classes,” Arora said. To see if there had been any change in the curriculum over the past four years, Lainey Rodriguez, a freshman, speaks on her experience with the sexual education curriculum. “While taking the course, they mentioned we could get birth control free from clinics, but they also talked about insurance coverage in respect to abortions,” Rodriguez said. While this aspect may have improved, Rodriguez discussed similar issues that Arora brought up. “I noticed they didn’t mention any of the negative side effects of birth control. They were more like, ‘Hey, look how easy and effective birth control is, and didn’t talk about its various side effects,” Rodriguez said. Birth control can take effect on several aspects of one’s life, so it is crucial to become more knowledgeable about this topic.
22 HIGHLANDER OPINION
