CONTRACEPTION: House Republicans attempt to pass a measure which allows providers of health insurance to choose whether to provide contraceptives.
By Chance Ornelas-Skarin, Staff Writer
Before the government shutdown, one of the many things Republicans were attempting to change in the spending bill they submitted includes a so-called “conscience clause,” which allows employers to choose whether or not to provide contraceptives as necessitated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This clause would entirely change the ACA. The ACA is a bill that currently requires employers to pay for birth control. Many view this as a threat to the right of religious freedom because they would rather not pay for the facilitation of what they believe to be wrong. This leads to the inevitable question: should one person’s right to religious freedom restrict another person’s right to freedom in general?
According to a poll by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 63 percent of Americans approve of insurance providers covering the cost of contraceptives. The results of this poll demonstrate that the majority of Americans believe that contraception should be allowed, while a little over a third of the participants disapprove of the provision. Contraception should be covered because unintended pregnancies happen most among “poor and low-income women,” according to the Guttmacher Institute. Poor women who are sexually active simply cannot afford to consistently purchase the contraceptives they need, consequently resulting in more abortions.
Over half of all pregnancies are unintended and 43 percent of those unintended pregnancies in the United States end in abortion. Only 5 percent of those unintended pregnancies were women who used contraceptives correctly. These statistics prove the benefit of making employers and insurance providers cover contraception: making contraceptives readily available through insurance will reduce unwanted pregnancies.
Still the question of whether or not an individual’s personal religious beliefs should abridge the rights of others remains. Just because an employer feels he or she should not facilitate the use of contraception because of his or her religious views does not mean their employees’ freedom to make their own choices should be restricted. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 49 percent of Americans are covered through their employers. If about half of Americans are covered through their employers, then potentially about half of the unintended pregnancies that occur would be prevented, should the ACA require employers to cover contraceptives. In order to prevent the unintended pregnancies that ensue from the lack of availability of contraceptives, the ACA should be passed without the “Conscience Clause” to make employers provide contraceptives to employees who may need them.