Trump Confirms He Would Allow Bosses to Determine Whether Women Can Access Birth Control

For Immediate Release: Feb. 25, 2016

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When asked whether he would cut off women’s access to birth control, a part of essential preventive health care, Donald Trump said emphatically “Yes, I would.”  Donald Trump would place corporate CEOs between women and their birth control, and prevent women from accessing birth control like any other prescription.

MODERATOR: All sorts of religious institutions fear that Hobby Lobby, if it's repealed, it was a 5-4 decision, they're going to have to bend their knee and provide morning-after pills.... Will you commit to voters tonight that religious liberty will be an absolute litmus test for anyone you appoint, not just to the Supreme Court, but to all courts?

TRUMP: Yes, I would.

 

Watch Donald Trump Promise to Let Bosses Control Women’s Bodies HERE

 

FACT: The Hobby Lobby decision meant bosses and politicians could determine whether women have access to affordable birth control

The deeply unpopular Supreme Court ruling placed bosses at corporations, like the arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby, between thousands of women across the country and their birth control.The Supreme Court’s ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, in which the arts and crafts chain asserted that as a corporation, it has religious beliefs that preclude providing health insurance that covers certain forms of birth control, meant that certain closely held for-profit companies could refuse to cover contraception in their employer-sponsored health plans.  Burwell v. Hobby Lobby is not just a healthcare or a women’s issue  – it’s an economic issue and a family issue.

FACT: Women like their birth control and more than 55 million women have benefitted from the ACA birth control benefit

Polling shows that 57 percent of female voters say that they would be more likely to support a candidate who opposes allowing employers to refuse to cover birth control. Thanks to the birth control benefit, more than 55 million women are now eligible for birth control without a copay. In the first year, American women and families saved $483 million on their birth control pill prescriptions alone thanks to this benefit.

The Affordable Care Act ensues that women have access to birth control without co-pay  just like other preventive health care services like blood pressure screenings, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and routine vaccinations. More than 55 million women nationwide have benefited from no-copay birth control, and in the first year of the birth control benefit it saved women an estimated $1.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for birth control pills. Here are some of the reasons why we all benefit when women have access to affordable birth control:

• Women use birth control for a wide range of health related reasons. A report on the overlooked benefits of oral contraceptives from the Guttmacher Institute found that while the most common reason women use the pill is to prevent pregnancy, 58 percent of pill users also cite non-contraceptive health benefits as a contributing factor. 

• Birth control expands opportunities for women. A 2012 report from the Guttmacher Institute confirmed that women use contraception to better achieve their life goals, with the majority of participants reporting that contraception has had a significant impact on their lives, allowing them to take better care of themselves or their families (63 percent), support themselves financially (56 percent), complete their education (51 percent), or to keep or get a job (50 percent).  Other reasons for using contraception, reported by a majority of respondents, include not being ready to have children (63 percent), feeling that using birth control gives them better control over their lives (60 percent), and the desire to wait until their lives are more stable to have a baby (60 percent).