Even just as a policy matter, expanding contraceptive coverage has been the single greatest advancement in reproductive health care in a generation, making birth control affordable and accessible for millions of women. In financial terms, this single provision saves American women more than $1.4 billion a year on birth control.
Yet requiring contraceptive coverage also makes women in our democracy more free. In a recent Forbes essay, Melinda Gates said that "when a girl or woman has economic means in her own hands, it shifts the whole power dynamic in the family, whether it's with her mother-in-law or her husband. It's the beginning thing that unlocks a woman's potential."
Repealing the contraceptive mandate suffocates this potential – it robs women of the ability to control their own lives and to build their own power in our society.
And that's exactly why Trump did it.
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