Protecting Access to Birth Control in the United States

September 28, 2024 | Written by G.K.

As a student at a large university, I find myself receiving frequent, yet horrifying emails from my school’s administration reporting incidents of rape and sexual assault on campus. With limited protections from the university, women in college must take safety into their own hands, one such means being through birth control. While victims of rape face significant trauma following the attack, contraceptives can help to ensure that an unwanted pregnancy does not add to this unimaginable burden. 

Rape is not merely isolated to college campuses. Nearly 1 in 5 women in the United States experience rape in their lifetime, and of these victims, approximately 1 in 3 are between the ages of 11 and 17¹. Birth control has protected many victims from having to relive their traumatic experience through an unwanted pregnancy. However, current legislation, backed by many republicans, is placing access to both preventative and emergency contraceptives at risk. 

In May of 2024, Missouri governor Mike Parson passed the Missouri House Bill 2634, defunding essential clinics that provide access to contraceptives, along with cancer screenings and STI testing². This bill follows the state’s strict ban on abortion, which affords no exceptions for rape or incest. 

While Missouri is one of the first states in the U.S. to enact such laws, more would likely follow if Donald Trump is elected president in November. The “Project 2025” mandate outlines plans to defund clinics that provide contraceptives and remove coverage of such medications from insurance plans³. Furthermore, the document also labels emergency contraceptives, such as plan B, as “abortifacients” and suggests that they should be banned in states where abortion is illegal. 

Although the overturning of Roe v. Wade did not explicitly result in the banning of contraceptives, the ruling caused confusion over laws surrounding birth control and the closure of many family planning clinics in states that enacted bans on abortion. One study reported that, in the year following the supreme court’s decision, states with bans on abortion saw, on average, a 4.1% decrease in prescriptions for oral contraceptives and a 65% decrease in prescriptions for emergency contraceptives⁴. This decline is likely also the result of unclear rhetoric from public officials, as many women reported confusion about whether or not contraceptives were legal in their state⁵. 

As access to contraceptives becomes limited, so do women’s rights. Contraceptives not only aid victims of sexual violence, but all women and their right to decide if, when, and how they want to start a family. The decision to have children should be in the hands of women. However, bans on birth control are handing this right over to lawmakers, the majority of whom are men. 

As a woman, voting this November is not simply a decision between one candidate or another, but a question of who should be controlling the rights to our bodies: ourselves or the government?

References

1. https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics 
2. https://www.missouridemocrats.org/governor-parson-signs-bill-attacking-family-planning-and-essential-health-services-provider-limiting-care-options-for-thousands
3. https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf 
4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38922616/#:~:text=Importance:%20The%20US%20Supreme%20Court,restrictive%20abortion%20policies%20after%20Dobbs. 
5. https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/26/health/birth-control-drops-after-abortion-bans/index.html