I think that access to birth control is so important because it is absolutely fundamental in a woman's life. I would argue that access to birth control is not so much a privilege as it is an absolute human right. To deny it is to also deny a woman her basic rights of personal autonomy and dignity. Every woman in the world should have the right to decide when she has children. It is her body, her life, her choice. She should not be forced to have a child that she cannot effectively raise simply because the means to prevent such a pregnancy were denied her. There are women out there for whom access to birth control is a matter of life and death. There are women who live in such poverty that they can barely feed themselves, much less a child. There are women who risk their own health and safety in giving birth, as well as the lives of their potential children. There are woman for whom access to birth control could mean being forced to stay in an abusive relationship rather than being able to get out and seek safety. All of these and other examples I could give point to the same basic fact: denying access to birth control also denies a woman a right to make one of the most basic, visceral, and personal decisions she will ever make. It is a right that should not be denied to any woman, and especially not to those who need it most.

Nia, Missoula