Argumentative Essay: Do We Need Free Birth Control?

For over 50 years birth control has been available to women but only through prescription. There are many women that don’t have health insurance, aren’t able to go to a clinic, or are too young and don’t have parental permission, hindering those who want to receive a prescription for birth control. Most people can easily access male/female condoms at nearly any local store. You can even purchase a “morning after” pill, known as Plan B, without a prescription. So why not sell oral contraceptives to women over the counter? Selling birth control over the counter can better help provide many health benefits for women, decrease teen pregnancy and abortion rates, and even save taxpayers money.

Oral contraceptives have provided the world with great outcomes. Planned parenthood stated that birth control has “advanced women’s educational opportunities, led to more college-educated women pursuing advanced professional degrees, enhanced children’s well being in the long run, saved women money, reduced teen pregnancy, and reduced unwanted pregnancy” (“Birth Control” 1-3). The argument that birth control has done great things for society is obvious.

One of the most significant happenings that the Birth Control Movement was responsible for was the creation of the birth control pill. In 1948, Margaret Sanger, biologist Gregory Pincus and physician John Rock began to research and develop the birth control pill. It got approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1960 (Kaufman). This oral contraception is a type of medication that women take daily to prevent pregnancy because these pills contain hormone that prevent a woman’s eggs from leaving the ovaries and making cervical mucus thicker which keeps the sperm from getting to the eggs (Planned Parenthood). Plannedparenthood.org stated that within five years of its approval, the birth control pill was used by one out of every married women

Women have been using birth control methods for over thousands of years. Today, we have various effective birth control methods available to woman. Such as the pill, patch, shot, or IUD. Birth control is a safe way to prevent pregnancy. You can purchase birth control at your doctor’s office, planned parenthood, a clinic, or a public health care provider. They will first discuss your medical history with you, then check your blood pressure and finally you will discuss which birth control method is right for you, and they will send you on your way with your prescription. Birth control can be purchased at your local drugstore and costs up to 50 dollars. In a lot of cases though, young girls and even older women cannot afford or access these types of birth control. There are concerns about being unemployed which results in no income coming in for birth control, lack of health insurance the woman may have and whether or not the woman can afford having a child, even more during an economic crisis. By having women’s birth control free it will not only decrease the chances of abortion, help women financially , help with women’s menstrual cycle, and also by lowering the teen pregnancy rate, and having them have the power to decide when they want to have children. Many people can argue that the government shouldn’t have to provide another free service and that the cost

A total of 730,322 abortions were reported from the Centers for Disease Control in 2011. This could easily be resolved with proper usage of birth control. But the fact of the matter is that only 62% of women are actually using proper birth control, now this may seem like a lot of women, but there is 158.6 million women in the United States alone so 58.5 million are currently not on any birth control which is a huge amount of women. Birth control needs to be free and accessible, because the benefits of having women on birth control easily outweigh any of the cons that may come. My goal for this paper is to talk about the pros of having free and accessible birth control, which would be lower abortion rate, lower teenage pregnancy rate, and the many health benefits. I will also touch on the opposing side of this argument, which will be that, it will be too expensive, that abstinence is key, and that if birth control became free and accessible women would no longer go the doctor.

In the United States 50% of pregnancies are unplanned. Is birth control not easy enough to get? Since 1960 the birth control pill has been approved for contraceptive use. However, women haven't been able to get a hold of the contraceptive without a doctor's prescription. The law has been the same since the pill came out, shouldn't their be a change? The distribution of birth control pills behind the counter would be beneficial to many women's lives. The pill being more easy to get would make busy women's lives easier, as they wouldn't have to go to the doctor to get the prescription. This form of contraceptive is also safe with little to no side effects with more benefits. The biggest thing that the pill would change is prevention of unplanned pregnancy, but money is holding all of this back.

Parents should be supportive to the child no matter what the situation can be or how hard it is to understand. The guardians of the minor have the right to know where they go and with whom they spend time with. This does not necessarily mean they can decide when their child should be ready to be sexually active. Regardless, it is going to occur when they feel that the moment is right. Birth control is not only valuable in protecting young teens getting pregnant, but also has its health advantages. To add to that, the child may want to begin taking birth control before they do so, but it becomes a very uncomfortable and awkward topic for a child to discuss with their parents. There are many unsupportive parents that become sensitive to this topic, and may deny birth control to their daughters. In other words, birth control should be available to teenage girls without parental consent.

Not to mention, the cost of birth control when not covered by insurance is extremely costly. Birth control should be free for women because most women cannot afford yearly birth control or their insurance will not cover it completely. Since there have been so many studies confirming how beneficial birth control is for a woman’s health, they should not have to pay such costly prices in order to prevent life changing illnesses.

According to a Guttmacher Institute report, more than half of all women surveyed for a 2012 study said birth control use had allowed them to take better care of themselves and their families, allowed them to support themselves financially, finish their educational goals and keep or obtain a

One of the many purposes of birth control is to avoid unwanted pregnancies. In this day and age the decision to take birth control should be a mere right and not a debate, but society has still not fully accepted the use of birth control even though “ninety-eight percent of women use birth control at some point in their lives” (Milligan, 2014, p. 3). Birth control has unfortunately earned a negative stigma because it allows women to have sex without getting pregnant and that is frowned upon throughout parts of society. Some members of society have even compared the use of birth control to abortion. Women who choose to take birth control should not be judged and the use of birth control amongst women should no longer be considered disgraceful. The reliable access to birth control should be made available to all women no matter their race, age, and class.

By making birth control available over the counter lower rates of teen and unwanted pregnancies. With birth control being easier to access it may help reduce the number of abortions each year. Access to birth control has health benefits for women

Many women today use birth control. It is something that has been around since the ancient times; however, it has become more safe and effective in the twentieth century. There is a variety of birth control, otherwise known as contraceptives, and women will choose one which best suits their needs. There are places such as Planned Parenthood who try and provide forms of free birth control so women around the United States are able to grab it fast and comfortably. Some forms, however, are somewhat expensive; they may be up to thousands of dollars and that is hard for most people to pay for. If the women have jobs that provide insurance, the insurance companies would most likely be able to cover a certain amount of the cost so that it would be

Birth control. Most of the women in America have tried some type of birth control during their lifetime. Currently, we are having debates to see if birth control should be free or at a lower cost to citizens. Why do we need birth control if we already have condoms? Do we really have affordable birth control? Can we get it easily? Does it do more than just prevent pregnancies? If birth control really helping women and the economy? In this research paper, I will be going over these questions. Birth control is a benefit to modern society and we have benefited from it greatly.

Birth control came about from women who were obligated to have families and not letting it be a choice. Many women have heard about contraceptives that are advertised on tv, magazines, and even from a family doctor. Women knew very little of what birth control could do or even prevent. Women thought that just by taking birth control it could prevent pregnancy. They were not well informed that all body

Health care and what people are legally allowed to do with their bodies have created controversy galore throughout history. A particular point of debate is the topic of birth control and the government. A dangerous couple, it raises the question of who should have control over contraceptive laws and what controls involving them should be put in place? Currently, under the Obama Administration, the Affordable Care Act and “Obamacare” have been created. One of the sections of this new plan creates a mandate which requires private businesses to provide insurance that covers birth control costs. The government should not be able to force businesses, and therefore the American people, to pay for birth control via health insurance because it