by Sam Silva ’28 on April 16, 2026
Opinion - Society
One day, my roommate and I were on our way to the CVS on Admiral Street to pick up our birth control. I checked out with no charge, as it’s covered by my insurance, while my roommate had to pay $30 for hers. My roommate uses PC’s insurance, which does not fully cover birth control costs. Sure, this is a Catholic institution that obviously is not pro-premarital sex. Nonetheless, I feel like we forget that women use birth control for so many other reasons. Like many girls, I started birth control when I was 16 and dealing with very difficult periods. This is not an individual experience—many girls deal with the same thing, some to an even worse extent. When I finally talked with my doctor, she recommended that I start birth control. As a 16-year-old, I was ashamed of using the pill and I remember being so nervous about my dad learning I started birth control. Regardless, I was just a young girl who needed help regulating her periods, who associated birth control with preventing pregnancy. And even so, my poor experience starting birth control was not just unique to me, but is a defining experience for many women.
Online recently, I’ve seen many posts about birth control and the negative effects it has on women. They say birth control causes anything from infertility to thinking your boyfriend is unattractive. None of these effects are remotely true, they are just used to scare girls out of using the pill. In reality, birth control can cause things like hormonal changes or headaches. If you have these symptoms, you can easily talk to your doctor and decide on a new brand or type. I’ve been on birth control for five years now and have used two different brands. Birth control works differently for everyone, so it is important to find the one that works best with your body. It is completely normal to have some side-effects, as any medication causes. Yet, birth control has gotten lots of attention as some people claim it has horrible effects on women’s health. There is always someone who has had the worst experience with birth control—but that does not mean that every woman should be fearful of starting birth control. The fear mongering surrounding birth control has gotten so out of hand, that people I personally know are afraid to start taking the pill.
One thing I have noticed is that the same groups that are anti-birth control are a part of the hyper-conservative, all-natural, trad-wife movement that has become very mainstream. Why this movement has involved birth control in their agenda I cannot say for certain, but I see a correlation with controlling women’s bodies. Why is it that women now do not have federal access to abortion, while they simultaneously argue women should not be on birth control because it is bad for them. Instead, they propose that women should just track their cycles or be abstinent!
Here is my biggest problem with this online push against birth control. All these other forms of “birth control,” like tracking your cycle, do not protect women in the same way a pill or implant can. We should just take abstinence out of the equation because it is just unrealistic for most people. In this uncertain landscape for women’s health, with limited access to abortion and sovereignty over our bodies, why should women be pushed not to protect themselves? The birth control pill is 99 percent effective at preventing pregnancy, while tracking your cycle is 75 percent effective. In a country where not every woman has the right to choose what they do with their bodies, most people should at least believe that women should have access to pregnancy prevention methods such as birth control. Since when have we stopped promoting a pill that has allowed people to live a better life? Tylenol and Advil allow you to move on with your day when you have a horrible migraine. Birth control can allow a woman to live comfortably, cramp free, and without anxiety. Both have a long list of side-effects, but are necessary for comfortability. Everything I have seen posted online by the fear mongering, trad-wife, hyper-conservative, all-natural movement is a lie. Their only purpose is to scare girls and even grown women away from protecting their bodies with birth control.