Contraceptive choice and class

Over at Feminocracy, earlgreyrooibos tackles the tough topic of universal health care, ensuring access to abortion and contraception, and the ways in which access is already limited:

Of course, as I’ve written elsewhere, there are many women who are already stuck. Those who live in rural areas may not be able to travel far enough to find a pro-choice doctor. They may not have a car. They may not be able to afford the abortion, and they may not have a pro-choice friend who is able to lend money. I know that the time in my life when I was most terrified of an accidental pregnancy was when I was a broke college student with no car and living 60 miles from the nearest abortion clinic. I admit that I was still better off than many women; I could have found a friend with a car to drive me, and I could have scraped together the money by borrowing from a wealthy friend or even taking out another student loan. But I still had that fear of whether or not I’d be able to find a ride or get the loan. Fortunately, my fears were never realized. Yet there are other women who are not going to be so lucky.
And so now I find myself in a different sort of planning mode. I can write letters and blog posts and sign petitions and protest and march in order to convince legislators and other relevant parties that abortion is not contraception, and that contraception should be available and affordable to all women who ask for it. But what happens if the worst case scenario comes through, and this legislation passes? What if women’s access to contraception experiences yet another roadblock?

Read the rest.