EACH NOVEMBER, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy runs a social media campaign to make people more comfortable talking about birth control. The hashtag: #ThxBirthControl. This year, however, #ThxBirthControl had even more significance for many women. In the wake of the election of Donald Trump, some health advocates and insurance experts warned women to prepare for the possibility that they may lose free access to birth control, along with other health care services, after Trump is sworn in this January.
BIRTH-CONTROL DILEMMA: IUDs have a 1 percent failure rate, but at $500 to $1,000, they are too expensive for women whose insurance doesn’t cover them.
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Throughout his campaign, Trump vowed to repeal President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which requires health insurance companies to provide free contraception to all women who request it. It’s unclear whether Trump will change this mandate. While he has said he plans to uphold other provisions of the law, such as making it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, the president-elect hasn’t publicly addressed maintaining free access to contraceptives.