High Plains women who’ve come to rely on free birth control under the Affordable Care Act may lose their benefits once the Trump administration takes the reins.
The law providing cost-free contraception has been popular among working women, but deeply unpopular with foes of abortion rights. And Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services is an avowed opponent of reproductive rights.
As The Seattle Times reports,Rep. Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia, has a 100 percent anti-abortion-rights voting record. In his role as the new HHS Secretary, Price wouldn’t need the approval of Congress to revoke the free-contraceptive measure. That’s because the contraceptive measure never went through Congress in the first place. It exists due to a rule enacted by the Obama administration.
If Price scuttles the law, rural women will likely suffer the most. More than half of states have laws requiring health-care plans to cover birth control. But among High Plains states, only Colorado does so.
