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'Strong Possibility' Trump's Taking Away Your Birth Control, So Stock Up Now

by Alexandra Svokos
REUTERS

Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, people with uteruses have been concerned about birth control.

Republican politicians generally are against women's access to reproductive rights, and Trump's administration is no different.

The Trump administration seems to be coming in quite strict on the issue of birth control, as new evidence proves.

Trump picked Tom Price to run the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Price, like, really doesn't want you to get your birth control for free.

In 2012, he said that he doesn't believe there are any women who have trouble paying for birth control when it's not covered by insurance. *lol*

The HHS told The Hill  they would not "speculate on future policy," but experts are saying it looks like the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) requirement that birth control be paid for by insurance is going to be gone soon enough.

Adam Sonfield, senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, which is liberal, told The Hill,

There's a lot of pressure on this administration and a lot of people within the administration who clearly have an agenda that runs contrary to this provision. It certainly looks like a strong possibility that they're going to try to do something.

The HHS could take away contraceptive coverage simply by making a regulation that birth control is not included in women's preventive health services for insurers.

Taking away that birth control coverage would be really harmful for the women (and menstruating people) who use it.

The Obamacare birth control mandate saved women $1.4 billion in 2013, just purely based on not having to pay for the pills. But then there are other related costs. For instance, unplanned pregnancies cost a lot of money.

Because of worries about contraceptives under Trump, many women have been considering IUDs and the implant as long-term solutions to the issue. Doctors recommend you don't switch up unless you've seriously discussed it with your provider and decided it's what's best for you.

To add to the threat to birth control made by Price in the HHS, we've got Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch.

Gorsuch has repeatedly come out against contraceptive coverage, so should Price start a legal battle to take it down, Gorsuch could help put the nail in the coffin.

Just to be on the safe side, if you've got the ability to get some extra monthly packs of pills, you might want to make a call to your doctor and hop over to the pharmacy.

Citations: Trump officials weigh fate of birth-control mandate (The Hill), Birth-Control Repeal May Cost Women $1.4B A Year In Copays (For Starters) (Forbes)