Reproductive health just doesn’t refer to abortions, even though the majority of attention is on the subject. It is also about accessing contraception, family planning services, sex education and other things.

The above things combined help women to not only have bodily autonomy but also in assisting them to control the size and timing of their families. It helps them to achieve financial security, emotional readiness, education level they want, advance in their career without having to worry about getting pregnant beforehand.

After all, child care is expensive, costing up to USD 9,000 to USD 25,000 per year.

This is why provision of all reproductive health options (i.e. the ability to access safe abortion pills/service and contraception- including others) to women is better for the country’s economy as well as good for providing them with an essential financial security.

The same had been acknowledged by the Supreme Court in 1992, but due to several conservative politicians and supreme court judges, women have been barred from the ability to control their reproductive lives.

As a consequence, the right to control their reproductive choice becomes an illusion for many women, especially those who are poor.

The economics of birth control

With conservative politicians dead-set on restricting abortion, it can be assumed that they would introduce policies that would assist access to birth control. However, it was found that conservative attacks on contraception access has been escalating in the recent years.

This is even when survey shows that 90% of sexually active women use some form of contraception –buy Ovral pills or other brand of ‘combined’ birth control pills or even other barrier methods like condom or nuvaring.

In addition to its health benefits, surveys show that access to contraception is responsible for one-third of women’s wage gain since the 60’s.

According to a survey, 77% of women who used contraception reported that it allowed them to care of themselves and their family better, while large majorities also said that it allowed them to gain financial stability – 71%, study further -64% and advance in career- 64%.

Even then, there is a class distinction in birth control access, as evidenced with the rate of unplanned pregnancies in women living below the poverty line was five times more compared to rich women.

The main reason for this disparity is because birth control cost and insurance coverage.

This insurance coverage, is yet at risk for millions of women employed under those who religiously object to providing birth control coverage. They argue that this contraceptive coverage can be provided from other sources like the federally funded family planning institutions.

Yet, the conservative politicians threaten to take away the funding from such centers which proffer reproductive/sexual health care for millions of people every year.

This doesn’t make any economic sense. The public funded centers help in avoiding approximately 2 million unwanted pregnancies every year, which saves the government billions of dollars in health costs. The net savings made by state from this programs are USD 13.6 billion.

Each $1 invested is these services saves $7.09 for the government.

While billions of dollars expended in abstinence-only programs incur loos as they have been proven to be highly ineffective.

Access to abortion

One of the biggest impediment in accessing is the abortion pill cost and expenses sustained for an abortive procedure.

Half of the women who seek pregnancy termination, have to pay for one-third of their monthly income to afford the procedure. Meanwhile costs significantly increase the longer the women have to wait- whether because she wants to save up or because of state law requires her to do so.  Studies show that women who cannot access pregnancy termination procedures are three times more likely to fall below poverty line.

More and more women now days, therefore buy abortion pills online for cheaper deals.

The Hyde amendment

Another reason why the U.S policy on abortions promotes inequality is by banning on federal funding on abortive procedures with exception to cases of incest, rape and sexual violence.

Therefore, denying poor women abortion coverage under Medicaid results into increased rate of unintended pregnancies.