As the Supreme Court Considers Birth Control Access, America's Workers Have the Most to Lose

The Supreme Court just heard arguments on a case that could majorly impact access to birth control. 
Birth control packet
Molly Cranna

In this op-ed, president and CEO of the National Women's Law Center, Fatima Goss Graves, explains why taking away birth control in health coverage is harmful—especially during a pandemic.

Millions of us across the country have settled in for a second month of isolation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a sobering time. Tens of thousands have lost their lives, and so many millions more now face unemployment. Even for those privileged enough to work remotely, life amid crisis already means a narrowing of certain choices and opportunities. This is exactly the wrong time to take one more thing away from working people in this country.

But on May 6, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. The Court will decide whether the Trump administration can allow employers and universities to take health insurance coverage of birth control away from their employees and students.

Back in 2017, the Trump Administration announced "interim final rules" that would authorize virtually any employer to opt out of providing birth control coverage to employees for religious or moral reasons—that is, for almost any reason. These rules would gut the historic Affordable Care Act requirement that plans cover a full range of contraceptive methods, services, and counseling at no cost, which saved women and families in this country more than a billion dollars.

States and many others, including my organization, the National Women’s Law Center, successfully challenged these illegal and discriminatory rules in the courts. The Trump Administration appealed these decisions, and Little Sisters is now before the Supreme Court. The far right hopes that by bringing this case to the Court, they can allow employers to refuse to provide birth control coverage once and for all.

If the Court decides in favor of the Trump administration rules, birth control access won’t evaporate overnight for most people, but hundreds of thousands of people could lose their birth control coverage just when they need it most.

The freedoms, health, and economic security of workers across the country will be in jeopardy if their access to affordable birth control is taken away by a Supreme Court that sides with the Trump Administration.

This pandemic serves to remind us that nobody should be denied access to basic health care, and that includes birth control. Whether employees have access to the health care they need shouldn’t depend on lucking into the right boss. And they certainly shouldn’t lose access just because their employer objects to it. Those personal, health-related decisions belong in the hands of individuals, in consultation with health care providers. It’s the employees who will be left pay more for their health care.

If you may have missed that there are actual workers at the center of the case, it’s not surprising. The case is conveniently titled after Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns that has gone after birth control access in recent years. But nothing is actually at stake for them in this case—religious organizations are already exempt from birth control coverage. It’s the workers on the front lines working as health aides in nursing homes and students who are unsure whether they will return to campus in the fall who will pay more for their health care in the midst of a pandemic.

People like Rebecca, who struggled to access birth control before the ACA in 2004, when she made $115 per week and couldn’t afford contraception. For a while, Rebecca was able to access free sample packets of birth control at the doctor’s office, but then her luck ran out.

It’s people like Ariel, a 19-year-old who lost her insurance and the birth control coverage she needed to manage debilitating cramps. Because Ariel is homeless, she already has to weigh impossible choices in order to stay safe and healthy. Now, contraception is out of reach too, and her chronic pain is here to stay.

These are the types of situations the Trump Administration is going to create if its illegal and discriminatory rules are allowed to go into effect. They’re simply using the optics of this case to mislead the public. This isn’t really Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania. It’s Trump Administration v. Rebecca. It’s Trump Administration v. Ariel. It’s an attack on all of us.