A July 2014 article on MSNBC, “This Is The Next Hobby Lobby” details the stories of Notre Dame graduate students Laura Grieneisen and Liz Miller and their ability to access birth control.
While both Grieneisen and Miller are biology students studying the effects of bacteria on baboons in Kenya, that’s where the similarities end.
Both are in need of contraception access, and both are interested in getting an intrauterine device (IUD) inserted. Grieneisen, age 26, is able to stay on her parents health insurance plan and get her IUD paid for under the Affordable Care Act. Miller, on the other hand, is 29, has health insurance covered through Norte Dame, and due to the university’s adherence to Catholic teaching against contraception, is not able to get her IUD costs covered.
While this sounds like a setback, the Affordable Care Act has a plan in place to allow women like Miller to have more expensive forms of contraception covered, while also allowing religious institutions like Norte Dame to opt-out. However, over 100 academic institutions, along with Norte Dame, are suing The Obama Administration, claiming that this opting out allows religiously-affiliated nonprofits to certify their objection to covering expensive forms of birth control still violates their religious liberty.
Why? Because despite their objections, contraception will still be dispensed.
What are some Norte Dame students saying?
Kalya O’Conner, a rising junior says:
“I understand that Notre Dame is a Catholic institution and that birth control is not part of their Catholic beliefs, but not all the people who work for them are Catholic, and they don’t share the same beliefs…There’s this mentality that Notre Dame students aren’t having sex, and that’s not true. It’s a total lie. I think because there isn’t easy access to contraceptives, they aren’t having safe sex.”
Graduate Lindsey Marugg, who was on birth control pills after she ruptured two ovarian cysts, wrote to the campus newspaper in 2012:
“Even though I had chosen to wait until marriage to have sex, my birth control prescription earned me judgment from friends and nurses on campus.
In late July, The Obama Administration said it would come up with an accommodation to the opt-out accommodation that will help students and employees of these institutions that refuse to sign the opt-out form. But the outcry over the opt-out form raises the question of just what kind of compromise, short of no coverage of contraception at all, would suffice.
Nicole’s Take: As you can see, this is a complicate situation that won’t receive a final conclusion until the Supreme Court is able to give this case a thorough review, which may not be for a while. Regardless of the type of birth control, students should not be stigmatize for wanting access to contraception. Contraception should be viewed as an routine part of primary and preventative health care.
While many of America’s academic institutions were founded on religious beliefs, they fail to realize that every year, they enroll students and hire employees who expect to have services such as reproductive healthcare costs covered. When students are choosing which college to go to the fall, they are most likely not thinking of whether their school will cover their contraception. Does this mean that students who expect access to birth control and condoms should not consider universities such as Notre Dame? When there is evidence that access to contraception aids in reducing unintended pregnancies, coupled with the continued stigmatization of students who need access to contraception for non-sexual reasons, there needs to be a wake-up call. Students should not have to worry that their need for healthcare won’t be covered in their time of need.
I had several people point out to me that the Hobby Lobby decision ruled on certain kinds of contraception, but what they fail to understand is the big picture. “Certain kinds of contraception” will eventually lead to “all forms of birth control” and lead to more copy-cat cases that will make their way to the Supreme Court.
