Business for Birth Control 2021 & Beyond
On June 23, 2020, companies of all sizes and across diverse industries made a public pledge to guarantee employee birth control coverage and to support policies that protect reproductive health care access for all workers. Standing alongside Planned Parenthood, these businesses call on other business decision-makers to harness their influence to ensure affordable birth control access is covered in policy and practice, no matter what. The health of our people and our businesses depend on it.
Business for Birth Control is a movement to raise public awareness that birth control is essential health care. With the U.S. Supreme Court's July 8, 2020 decision to undercut birth control under the ACA, affordable birth control access is no longer a guarantee for employees or university students
Around the world, hundreds of millions of people rely on birth control to be able to control their own futures, yet many still struggle to obtain affordable contraception due to systemic inequities and continuous political attacks on reproductive health care access.
Birth control is critical to advancing gender equity, fostering more diverse and inclusive workplaces, and ensuring resilient businesses.
As the nation grapples to address systemic racism and inequities, face the COVID-19 pandemic, and revitalize the economy, reproductive health care — including birth control — is essential for employee retention, diversity and inclusion, and for the financial stability of all people.
Businesses That Have Signed The Pledge Include
Business leaders today are making a powerful statement to their employees: You should make your own health decisions, and we are willing to invest in your health and your future.”
– Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Be a Business for Birth Control
Covering birth control just makes sense. Reach out to us today to learn more about this important initiative or to sign the pledge!
It gives us time to plan with financial security.
86% of women executives believe that being able to time and plan parenthood is critical to professional development and their family's financial security.
Seventy-five percent of women say the ability to plan for their families has been important to their career and professional growth.
A majority of women at publicly funded family planning providers said birth control has allowed them to complete their education and support themselves financially.
It's narrowing the gender pay gap.
10% decrease in the gender pay gap during the 1980s, and 31% decrease in gender economic disparity during the 1990s, can be attributed to early access to the pill. One-third of the wage gains women have made since the 1960s are the result of access to oral contraceptive pills!
Over 62 million people — including 15 million Black women and 17 million Latinas — have benefited from the Affordable Care Act’s mandated birth control coverage, saving $1.4 billion in annual out-of-pocket costs for birth control pills in 2013 alone.
It helps us pursue our dreams.
The pill accounted for more than 30% of the increase in the proportion of women in skilled careers between 1970 and 1990. Birth control has been shown to create educational and career opportunities, in addition to opening the door to more management roles.
An example: when the birth control pill became more widely available, the school dropout rate among women with access to birth control was 35% lower than those without access.
It's part of a commitment to racial equity.
Women of color, especially Black and Indigenous women, face disproportionate barriers to health care. Thanks to those barriers, 4 in 10 Black women of reproductive age reported that they could not afford more than $10 a month for birth control if they had to pay out of pocket.
Affordable birth control is important to Black women’s economic success — more than two thirds of Black women believe the ability to plan if and when to have children is important to their ability to pursue their career goals.
Coverage is part of a larger commitment to equity, period.
Quantitative studies show that birth control access directly improves economic and health outcomes, and advances gender and racial equity.
Attacks on birth control are fundamentally racist, sexist, and homophobic. Access to a full range of reproductive health services is key to beginning to address historical disparities in unintended pregnancy, pregnancy mortality rates, and breast and cervical cancer. Commiting to birth control coverage is one of many steps that must be taken to create greater equity in the workforce and healthier, more inclusive communities.
Covering Birth Control Just Makes Sense
Birth control is a medical necessity. It is basic preventive health care — nearly 9 in 10 sexually active women have used birth control at some point in their lives for many reasons, including contraception, endometriosis, migraines, pre-menstrual pain, and menstrual regulation.
Birth control saves lives. The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is increasing - and Black women are most at risk. Globally, approximately 810 women die each day during pregnancy and childbirth from preventable causes. Increasing contraceptive access is one of the most effective ways to reduce maternal mortality.
Birth control improves outcomes for future generations. Not to mention: four out of five workers agree that reproductive freedom is a human right.
With roughly 50% of U.S. employees relying on employer-sponsored health care coverage, affordable birth control access is an important business issue that leaders should support if they truly want to address systemic inequities and advance inclusion in their workplaces.”
- Matt Patsky, CEO, Trillium Asset Management
Covering birth control just makes sense. Reach out to us today to learn more about this important initiative or to sign the pledge!
