Can you afford to have a large family or a family at all? Can you support yourself, your spouse, and your child or children? If you can, do you want to have or start a family already or just not yet? Birth control is a solution, but not everybody can afford it. Women are the only ones who use birth control and on the Guttmacher Institute website, it states that “More than 99 percent of women aged 15-44 who have ever had sexual intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method.” Whether it is the pill, implant, IUD, shot, or ring, birth control should not be hard to get no matter the situation a woman is in. Birth control is not free and has a price and many women cannot get it and be open to the advantages that women who can get it effortlessly. If birth control is free, women have more control of their futures and goals, their health improves, and lastly, taxpayers’ dollars are being saved.
Access to birth control lets many different women around the world decide what they want in their lives now or in the future. Having the feeling of control over your own life makes you feel already so powerful and free, especially for woman. That includes pursing their educational and professional goals. Women are the only human beings than can carry and deliver another human being, but sometimes not every woman wants to have children. Since birth control prevents pregnancy, going on the pill or getting the implant or IUD could be the best option. If a woman on birth control ever changes their mind in the future about having kids, they can easily get off birth control.
With the advantage of being able to get birth control before the age of 21, young woman can live the life they want and not stress about making sure they are getting their period every month. Birth control is a personal choice that lets woman live in moments of their lives whether they are first time college students, finishing up their schooling and getting their degree, or even working. A plus to birth control is that it helps woman focus on themselves first before wanting a child. Unplanned pregnancies can be a shocking surprise especially if not being financially stable is a problem.
Becoming pregnant and not being financially stable can be a big problem. Palo Alto’s Medical Foundation statistics state that “50 percent of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned.” The woman who are having unplanned pregnancies are usually young and maybe still in school. Most young adults that are not financially stable or even emotionally prepared to be parents could bring up their child in a low-income environment that does not allow them for development and accomplishments. “Decreasing unplanned pregnancy is the best way to reduce child poverty and ensure children are born into environments that promote a healthy future” (Mishkova, Gergana).
If you think and know that a child is the best option for you at the moment, then go for it, but if you think it isn’t, then press the pause button for a while. There is no pressure. Birth control is not just for young adults though. It is also for married couples.
“Taking the contraceptive pill enabled my husband and I to decide when to start a family. It also allowed us to space out our children, leaving a healthy gap of two years between the caesarian sections that I needed, allowing healing to take place before the next child was conceived. I think this was essential for my own health; maternal wellbeing is essential if children are going to be given a good start in life. Our three children are now in their twenties and, having been to university, they all embarked on interesting careers.” (Begum, Khadiza)
Family planning may take a while to plan and with you and your spouse or partner on the same page, it can be a lot easier. After a woman gives birth, it can be easy to get pregnant again since hormones are “all over the place” and going on birth control can help so there are no back-to-back pregnancies. With that, the body can get fully recovered and back into its good and healthy shape for whenever a couple or woman thinks the time is right again.
There are many types of birth control, like the ones I listed in the first paragraph, and whichever type of birth control method you choose doesn’t always have to be just for sex. Yes, birth control is to control the number of births a woman has if she becomes pregnant after sex, but it also lets them control their reproductive health, improve their quality of life, and treat unbearable symptoms. The Center for Reproductive Rights website says “Ashley Gray from New York, New York, started using birth control at age 15 to combat debilitating migraine headaches associated with her menstrual cycle that kept her from school for days at a time. This allowed her to focus on her education and attend college” (Center for Reproductive Rights).
Menstrual cycles and migraines suck and having a period is probably the most dreadful thing that comes knocking on the door in each month for a woman. That’s why some women choose birth control as an option since it can reduce cramps, bleeding, and even stop periods.
Periods are weird and can decide to appear whenever they’d like to and not be on a regularly scheduled time, but birth control helps on that part too. Many adolescent girls and young women often get prescribed pills of birth control for irregular menstrual cycles, cramps, acne, PMS, and many other different conditions. Nobody’s perfect and sometimes we have health conditions
Denying women of such an importance coverage under health insurance can cause so many problems for low income women and families and lives. Birth control certainly does save lives and promotes wellness.
