This is why women are invoicing Donald Trump for their birth control
Women are wondering where their reproductive rights stand as the Trump administration plows forward with increasingly worrisome health care bills. Earlier this month, Trump rolled back Obama’s mandate that employer-sponsored healthcare must provide plans that include copay-free birth control. Many of us with uteruses fear for the day that affordable birth control is but a dream from the past.
Thankfully, one organization is putting pressure on Trump with an ingenious plan to send him invoices for our birth control.
The Woman’s Equality Center launched the Keep Birth Control Copay Free campaign, which lets you send your “invoice” directly to the president. On the campaign site, you can select the type of birth control you use and get an estimate of your yearly expenses. For example: For oral contraceptives, the online tool estimates the average woman will spend $600 per year buying pill packs. You can include a personalized letter along with your invoice if you choose.
Some brand name birth control pills run upwards of $90 a month, meaning some women spend at least a grand per year just to keep their biology in check. And if anyone is reading this and thinking that this hypothetical woman ~should~ find a cheaper birth control, if only it were that simple.
If only the hunt for a birth control your body agrees with didn’t come with a side of intense physical pain, monetary detriment, and unpredictable mood shifts.
"Women are tired of footing the bill for male politicians' attacks on essential reproductive healthcare," campaign coordinator Amy Runyon-Harms said in a statement (via Teen Vogue). "Together, we are pushing back against President Trump's dangerous political decision to reduce access to birth control and today we are sending him the bill."
Damn right we are.
