People Are Using The #HandsOffMyBC Hashtag To Protest Trump's Birth Control Coverage Rollback
The new rules will allow employers to stop covering contraception for employees based on religious or moral reasons. People are using the hashtag on Twitter to speak up.
The Trump administration issued two new rules on Friday that will roll back Obamacare’s mandated birth control coverage.
The rules will allow employers to stop covering contraception for employees for moral or religious reasons. It does not fully overturn, but rather, rolls back the Obamacare contraception mandate — which required birth control to be covered by insurance companies (with no co-pay or coinsurance) as a preventive service. "The rules will broaden the ability of employers, universities, religious institutions, and even health insurers to opt-out of covering birth control," BuzzFeed News previously reported.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Friday morning that the rules will go into effect immediately. "Senior HHS officials, who asked not to be named, said that they estimated that 'no more' than 120,000 women would lose contraception coverage under this rule," BuzzFeed News reported. However, advocacy groups such as Planned Parenthood contest these claims and already four advocacy groups and Massachusetts are suing the Trump administration to block the rules.
As a result, many are turning to Twitter to speak out about the roll back in contraception coverage, using the hashtag "#HandsOffMyBC."
Your employer should absolutely ZERO business in your private health decisions #HandsOffMyBC
Birth control helps prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Women have fundamental human rights. They are not incubators. #HandsOffMyBC
Why is birth control more regulated than weapons? #HandsOffMyBC
I'm a Christian. This is not about my religious freedom. This is about controlling women's sexuality. That's all this is. #HandsOffMyBC
WOMEN TRIED T0 TELL YOU: It Was Never About Abortion And Always About Women's Right To Control Reproduction. #HandsOffMyBC
I am a man, but I use women's birth control. I don't have to pay for it, or take the pills, but I use it all the same. #HandsOffMyBC
Others used the hashtag to talk about the different uses of birth control.
I recently found out that I am infertile. I also have PCOS. I take birth control to treat those symptoms. #HandsOffMyBC
BIRTH👏🏼CONTROL👏🏼IS👏🏼ALSO👏🏼USED👏🏼TO👏🏼TREAT👏🏼CHRONIC👏🏼HEALTH👏🏼CONDITIONS👏🏼 #HandsOffMyBC https://t.co/Dk3WVNhkTY
I used to pass out from the intense cramps I got from my period. Literally, my roommate would find me on the floor. So, #handsoffmyBC.
I’m a lesbian who took birth control for years to help alleviate severe endometriosis. #HandsOffMyBC https://t.co/AAZ2cB9vtj
My Nexplanon has made it so I don’t get a period anymore. Now I don’t have to miss class/work because of debilitating cramps. #HandsOffMyBC
Some expressed concern about employers and bosses having the ability to opt-out of coverage.
#HandsOffMyBC Honestly, it's not about the BC for me. It's about my employer deciding his religion trumps my doctor.
I use birth control because I want to have sex and not get pregnant. And my access to BC shouldn't depend on my boss or job. #HandsOffMyBC
I love that my employer gets more say in what I do with my body than I do Said no woman ever. #HandsOffMyBC
And the new monthly costs that could result.
And if her employer stops covering birth control she will be out $50 or more each month for a medically necessary u… https://t.co/jJ50mHHNoH
When my wife got an IUD, that cost impacted the household budget. It was paid for from the same $ we used to pay fo… https://t.co/PRMYYeGV86
In the meantime, four groups have already said they would file lawsuits against the Trump Administration over the new rules.
The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Women's Law Center, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, have announced they will file lawsuits, challenging that the rules are "forms of gender discrimination and violations of the separation of church and state," BuzzFeed News previously reported.
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Caroline Kee is a health reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York.
Contact Caroline Kee at caroline.kee@buzzfeed.com.
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