A free clinic is less than useless if you can’t even afford to get there in the first place, or you don’t know it’s there. Rural areas often have a lot of low-income people who can’t afford the transport to the clinic even if they know about it and are willing to go.

Yes, there are options, but not everyone is able to use them.

Yes, low-income people can go to Planned Parenthood, which offers great services — except that they are already stretched pretty thin. Plus Republicans are constantly trying to de-fund them and shut them down. So many low-income women don’t have a Planned Parenthood near by.

Condoms also aren’t always the solution, since they require that your male partner use them. A lot of women aren’t able to demand condom use.

As for the idea that basic care is “more important,” why is reproductive health care not “basic care”? Is it just because it’s a lady thing? I mean, I don’t even have a general practitioner, but I do have a regular gynocologist — because for me, and for many women my age, reproductive health care is our primary and most important care. My gynocologist is the only doctor I see regularly. A few years ago when I didn’t have health insurance or a job I did go to Planned Parenthood and I got a year’s worth of birth control for free. But in order to do that, I had to (a) live in a state where PP is well-funded; (b) have a car to drive to the closest PP, which was about 30 minutes away from my house; (c) have 30 minutes to drive there, an hour to sit in the waiting room, 30 minutes for the appointment and 30 minutes to drive back home, in the middle of the day. A lot of low-wage workers can’t take that kind of time off work.

Anyway, point being, it is not nearly as easy as you think.

I think more important is basic care, for which it can be a big expense for someone who’s low-income but above the Medicaid cutoff line. But there are ways around that, too — a friend of mine just out of med school is working in gynecology, and his hospital (Catholic) provides heavily discounted or free treatment to very low-income women. I don’t know if it meets all the need out there, but there are definitely options.

No, Sal, it’s not “virtually free,” and you cannot simply obtain a month’s supply of pills for $10 at the pharmacy. To get birth control pills, you need a prescription, which means paying a visit to a doctor — not free. And once you have that prescription, a month’s supply of birth control is closer to $50 if you don’t have insurance cutting the cost. So, true again.

It is difficult to believe the results of this study, since birth control is virtually free already in the United States. Even if you are uninsured, a month’s supply of pills can be obtained for $10/month from major pharmacies. I think everyone knows this. Free clinics exist for those who cannot afford essential checkups.

And even if it were not already basically free — I cannot imagine what someone is “saving” money for by cutting back on birth control and their reproductive health?

I’m English, and I get my birth control pills free of charge, just like every other woman who gets them on the NHS. My doctor’s appointments are free when I go back for my check-up and repeat prescription. When I start having smear tests (which we don’t get until the age of 25- bloody ridiculous) they will also be free, unless I choose to go private.

I find it shcoking that women can’t afford to look after their reproductive health and choices in the USA because of the way the healthcare system works- as in, you don’t really have much of a system.