I’ve recently finished the amazing show “The Handmaid’s Tale.” It’s a story set in a time when America is struggling with war, pollution and a dangerously low birth rate.
The show features real world issues tied into a fictional story. Equality is thrown out the window as women revert to being important only because of their ability to produce life. Therefore, women lose their own independence and are once more treated as property rather than human beings.
As a young woman living in a time when Congress is examining organizations such as Planned Parenthood and voting against healthcare coverage for birth control, I see certain parallels that frighten me. I don’t want children and I am not even sure if I want kids ten years from now. Knowing my insurance may not help cover my birth control has me concerned for my own well-being both physically and financially.
Women only earn 79 percent of what men earn, as reported by the Senate Joint Economic Committee Democratic Staff of April 2016. That being said, having to pay out of pocket for a healthcare plan that is supposed to benefit my needs rather than something that should be provided could affect other parts of my life such as my education.
By making birth control and Planned Parenthood services harder to get, it increases the likelihood of dangerous situations for young women everywhere.
Women should have a say about what we want done with our bodies—not a majority vote so that the whole consensus must follow one rule. This idea is unfortunately lost in “The Handmaid’s Tale” but that doesn’t mean we can’t prevent it from happening in today’s society.
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