The cost of birth control Equalize sex education

The c st

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.

Opinion: Equalize sex education

School glorifies birth control, so women face a harsh reality when they realize birth control’s toll on our bodies and bank accounts.

In ninth grade, when we got the in-depth version of sex education, nothing was mentioned about the cost. Having a male teacher, the conversation felt like he was telling our class that women needed to get birth control, which was the end of the story. The whole tone of the discussion led to most girls in my class thinking they are responsible for any birth control or prevention in the future. There was no extra thought to it. There were demonstrations and an explanation of each sexually transmitted disease, but the details of each birth control were glossed over.

As I have gotten older, I have realized that birth control is a burden and, in actuality, not what school has been praised for. What makes me the most upset is that when the school was having this conversation, my teacher addressed the women and talked about how we must be in charge of our birth control method. One, it isn’t just the women’s job. And two, no one ever mentioned how expensive this requirement is.

I am lucky enough to have my birth control covered by insurance. Still, not everyone has this luxury, and even if it was accessible for most people, not everyone is educated on what each form of birth control does.

To find birth control that worked for me, I had to research and speak to my doctors, but not everyone has these resources. This leads to many people having the wrong birth control and experiencing side effects that could have been prevented with proper resources.

California public schools aren’t allowed to Institute programs that advocate for abstinence until marriage, yet it seems that is the only ideal they push on us. By having our sexual education curriculum keeping us ill-advised, it is easy for young women to find birth control with the wrong mindset.

We aren’t fully educated on each cost of birth control; what aggravates me the most is that from around 7th grade, women are already being pushed into sexist ideals. Now, this may be extreme, so let’s look at this closely. So many women are shamed for their sex lives.

Particularly when someone has an unwanted pregnancy, women are shamed for two options. If one becomes pregnant without a partner beside them, they are slut shamed, and if they have an abortion, they are also shunned for taking “life” away. So when our sex-ed class forces the idea of abstinence on us, they make us believe it is our fault for becoming pregnant, and it is something we deserve for having sex. That same pressure and shame are often not placed on men because they aren’t in charge of the aftermath.

I am tired of having a lack of information and frustrated with the sexist ideals being pressured on women, even in a “safe” environment like school. We need to be thoroughly educated on the cost of birth control without the underlying sexist tone.

KAI yoSHIDA