Related: Portland’s Resistance & Solidarity Calendar
From the late-night Senate vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act to attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions’ demonstrated inability to disavow anti-abortion domestic terrorist groups, the incoming administration is looking like some fresh fucking hell if you possess a uterus. In the months following the election, I heard from women stockpiling Plan B, scheduling emergency IUD insertions, getting real about long-discussed vasectomies for their partners, and devising strategies to maintain their sanity and bodily autonomy in a country soon to be led by creepy old men who want them to have neither. You might feel alone right now if you’re going through this too, so remember: You’re a foot soldier in an army, fighting back against tyranny with birth control preparedness. And I’m here to help.
One of the greatest things about the Affordable Care Act was the birth control coverage mandate, which required insurance plans to cover birth control as the preventive care it is. This is why you’ve probably heard a lot recently about IUDs (intrauterine devices, for those of us who didn’t go to a women’s college). Not only are IUDs one of the most effective, longest-lasting forms of birth control currently on the market, they’re also incredibly expensive without insurance—$500 to $900. For women who live in strongly pro-choice states like Oregon, larger concerns about access to abortion under the travesty that is the Trump administration may not be as immediately applicable. But the encroaching high cost of birth control? That is. The birth control benefit may already be on its way out by the time you read this, so if you’re thinking about getting an IUD, now’s the time.