Ladies, nobody can outclass The Donald in shamelessness. Nobody. One the eve of the first anniversary of the Access Hollywood tapes revealing Trump’s pussy-grabbing prowess, The Donald rolls back the mandate requiring employers to provide birth control coverage. In the tapes, Trump claimed, “You can do anything to women if you’re famous.” And, Trump is doing just that: proving that when you’re famous – you can do anything to women.
UltraViolet, a woman’s advocacy group, projected the Access Hollywood video on loop all day October 6 on a giant screen nearby the White House in honor of the anniversary. Women’s groups have been preparing for months to confront Trump’s attacks against birth control, women’s reproductive health and other issues affecting women. The ACLU filed a lawsuit immediately; other law suits are being filed as well. Ladies, when The Donald was a candidate he told us we would jack up our lives and he is fulfilling his promise.
Unlike other controversial parts of Obamacare, the mandate requiring insurance companies to provide family planning without out of pocket costs, i.e., free, is handled at the federal level by the Department of Health and Human Services. This means unilateral action by the Department to drop coverage is possible. The National Women’s Law Center estimates over 55 million benefit from the mandate to cover birth control.
Who will suffer the most from this rollback if it’s not stopped? We women of color that’s who. We are represented disproportionately in states that have not taken preemptive actions to expand access to contraceptives when 45 became president. Twenty states currently allow certain employers and insurers not to comply with the mandate. What will happen to women in states like Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, etc?
Read related articles: Will Trumpcare Jack Up Your Reproductive Health?
What can you do? Call your insurance company and tell them not take away your free birth control coverage. Call your representatives. Sign one of the many petitions out there. Here is the one by UltraViolet: https://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/insurers_birth_control/. Talk to your friends about this. Don’t stay silent.