Two months after Viagra was approved for prescription sales in the United States, it was picked up for coverage by a slew of insurance companies. However, 40 years after the conception and release of prescription contraceptives, the state has rejected a proposal that would put birth control pills under the umbrella of some health insurance policies.
For a drug with a substantial presentation in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, the dismissal of this bid creates quite a stir as it seems to be a bit of an anomaly. Democratic Senators Paulette Irons and Diana Bajoie of New Orleans see eye to eye on the issue. The Advocate’s Will Sentell quoted Bajoie: “It ought to be covered like every other legal drug.”
Senator Lynn Dean of Braithwaite, however, is busy playing the devil’s advocate. In the same article that quoted Bajoie and Irons in favor of insurance coverage for oral contraceptives so as not to discriminate against women choosing to take them. Dean was reported briefing the legislative congregation on “the birds and the bees.”
Apart from thanking the white haired grandpa-type senator for the brief on where babies come from, I’d like to bring to Dean’s attention the myriad uses for oral contraceptives besides – as she so candidly informed us – preventing pregnancy. Acne, cramps, pelvic inflammatory disease, anemia, cancer and bone density are all conditions proven through research to be effectively prevented and/or treated by oral contraceptives in many cases. The alternate functions for oral contraceptives are supported by a recent trend in the number of women bringing their teenage daughters to the gynecologist for birth control prescriptions for purposes other than contraception.
The long term effects of preventing women from having access to affordable birth control is far-spreading. Abortions, post-abortion injuries and trauma – children being “lost in the system” as it is so often dubbed – and children dividing time between courtrooms and parents are situations that we see constantly on a local level.
But on an further spanning – even global – scale, it is now evident nations whose women are educated and offered methods of birth control and family planning do not deplete their natural resources, spread disease in pandemic proportions, or exhibit such devastatingly elevated death rates. Human populations, the only ones exponentially increasing in density have historically shown drastic reductions in death rates after birth control has been introduced. Why combat a good thing here in the United States?
And in defense of those taking birth control pills for the unadulterated reason of being able to engage in pregnancy-free coitus, I must again address Viagra. If insurance covers a man’s inability to perform sexually without the help of a little blue pill, then insurance should cover the woman sleeping with him. Moreover, legislation should strive to protect the lives of children who may be aborted, abused, neglected or abandoned by women who either were not responsible or did not have access to affordable birth control.
As humans are the sole species increasing exponentially, family planning needs to be a priority. Whether family planning lies in the religious or medical realm or both will vary from woman to woman, but it’s time we see beyond our personal views of contraception and protect the rights of all women to act responsibly without breaking the bank.