Evaluating Reproductive Rights in America

"...You want to keep your options as long as possible? Birth control." successful actress, director, and producer Elizabeth Banks shares her advice to girls in high school. However, it might not be so easy for women to have that privilege. The government might make women pay for their hormonal birth control and the IUD, which means women will have no free access to birth control at the free health clinic. Birth control can cost over $1,000 without health insurance even though hormonal birth control helps treat more health issues than just contraception. In fact, if birth control were government funded it would greatly impact on today's society, including having fewer families depending on welfare, decreasing abortion rates, and women having more control over their bodies. These are the reasons why birth control should be government funded.

The early development of hormonal birth control was originally created to ease migraines until it was discovered that it prevented ovulation. From then on it became primarily used as contraception. Now in modern medicine, birth control treats multiple health issues.

For some women, menstrual cramps are so excruciatingly painful that they cannot even move. That's why 31% of women use birth control to ease that pain. 28% of women use it to regulate their menstrual cycle. 14% of women use it to control chronic acne. It has been proven that acne can impact your chances of earning a new job (VIDEO: Attn: HEALTH. Sophia Bush about birth control).

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: birth control costs only $9, and if not it's free? You're right, it is free. That is if you have health insurance. Only 10% of Americans don't have insurance. That is over two million Americans uninsured. Without health insurance, birth control can be very expensive, depending on which method you use. The pill and the ring can cost between $160 and $600 a year, the shot between $220 and $460 a year, and the arm implant can cost as much as $323 a year. Since the arm implant can last for four years it can cost as much as $1,300. Not to mention 1 in 3 women say they cannot pay more than $10 a month for birth control (March 2017 PerryUndem Survey). If they can't afford $10 they can't afford a baby. (VIDEO: Keep Birth Control Copay Free.) For most of that reason is that millennials are the poorest generation due to rising costs to raise children (because most of them are in their 30s.), increased in unemployment, and college debt.

Now, I understand you still have counterarguments and I'll be happy to slam some facts on the table.

"Why can't women just not have sex?" Good question. Have you ever been a teenager and have your parents ever told you to not have sex? Did you listen to them? Depending on who you are, chances are, you didn't. It is absolutely natural and healthy for teenagers to experience sex, but it's not healthy to scare them into abstinence. It is highly important for them to understand safe sex. Sophia Bush, actress, and activist quoted "You're not telling men to have less sex."

"But what about adoption?" Yes, there is always that option. Tell that to the 670,000 children still waiting to be adopted. Keep in mind that not all children are adopted into healthy, supportive homes.

"If you can't afford a child, don't have sex." First of all, a child should never be a punishment. That statement is only making children feel like burdens. A woman has the right to choose to have children or not.

"But birth control isn't healthy for you; it has too many side effects." All medication has side effects. Just look at your prescription drugs and look at all the side effects. I guarantee they are not healthy for you, either.

Giving couples and women access to reproductive health can also impact on society's issues. For instance, couples having children when unprepared is leading cause of welfare dependence. Some parents are even drug addicts. To keep drug users out of welfare they can have access to reproductive health. However some drug addicts have children in order to qualify for welfare, so even though we can't stop welfare abusers completely, we can reduce the majority of them.

Abortion is very controversial; it is one of the topmost debatable topics in the United States. You can't push pro-lifers to be pro-choicers, but you can convince them to be pro-reproductive rights. By giving women free access to birth control, it will reduce abortion rates. Not everyone is born to be a mother and they shouldn't have to be forced to raise a baby, especially if the baby was conceived by rape. Some women use birth control as a safety net in case they become victims of sexual assault.

There is proof that birth control has helped lives and may even help more lives if we make birth control government-funded. In 1963, before birth control was legal, just 7% of women completed four years of college. Today one in three women do (Millennials on Track to be the Most Educated Generation. Research Center.) Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood quoted "The biggest reason that women are now half the workforce and more than half the college students[...]is because they finally got the right to decide when and whether to have children."

A student at Arizona State University stated, "It's incredibly important to be able to decide when to have kids, without having to remain celibate until then. And it also helps out men! Too many people are unprepared to be parents, and birth control allows the freedom for men and women to have sex (which is very beneficial to [most] romantic relationships) without worrying about pregnancy as much as they would need to otherwise."

I propose that we can cut some unnecessary funds that are government funded, in order to make room for a medication that can help benefit millions of women in America. Or, in fact, create a co-pay plan. After all, birth control has so many more effects on women's health and women all over the country will be able to have a choice. Not only is birth control basic health care, but starting a family should be a choice, not an obligation. Why should reproductive rights be so controversial?