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Recently, Sandra Fluke testified before Congress, encouraging them to mandate that employers pay for contraception through health insurance.
This is because, as Ms. Fluke testified, there is only way for these women to get contraceptive protection.
“You might respond that contraception is accessible in lots of other ways. Unfortunately, that’s not true.”
Respectfully, this is nonsense. Here’s a list of alternatives to employer-subsidized contracepti
on (and their costs):
- Stop having sex – cost = $0
- Condoms – cost = $1/condom. At the high end, you’re looking at $30/month, the same cost as subsidized hormonal contraception
- Make the partner pay – cost = 50-100% reduction in cost, which is about the same as subsidized hormonal contraception.
This doesn’t address women who need the hormonal contraception for medical reasons because it’s my understanding that those are typically covered by organizations who oppose contraception.
Ms. Fluke argues there’s no requirement in these bills that they be covered. The good news is, there’s no requirement now and they’re already covered! Yay! Win for everybody.
This seems to be another case of jumping to the “force everybody to do what I want solution.” That’s unfortunate, as force tends to have unintended consequences that rarely go well for the nation.
Let’s all take a lesson from Bush-era mistakes: force is rarely the best solution.
