I don’t want my employer making decisions about my birth control, do you?

Imagine feeling like your insides have been set on fire. That’s what it was like for me when I had an ectopic pregnancy. For those who aren’t familiar, this happens when a fertilized egg grows outside the uterus. It can cause life-threatening bleeding and needs immediate medical care. The only treatment: abortion.

That’s because an ectopic pregnancy can’t proceed normally. The fertilized egg can’t survive, and the growing tissue may cause life-threatening bleeding, if left untreated. Meanwhile, the pain is agonizing; with each progressive day bringing a fiery sensation even worse than the last.

Long story short, abortion saved my life—and birth control prevents my chances of another ectopic pregnancy occurring. Making this week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding birth control so destructive.

Over the past month, we have seen an uprising across this country calling for racial justice. These protests, the COVID-19 public health crisis, and the ongoing fight for access to care, including abortion, have reached a tipping point across this country. The U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Trump administration rules that allow employers and universities to push their religious or moral beliefs on employees and students by denying them access to insurance that covers birth control is not only egregious, but political and dangerous.

The lives and livelihood of people like me are in danger. This administration and politicians across the country are coming for our most basic rights and freedoms. And they will not stop until we lose access to sexual and reproductive health care completely.

These administration rules, blocked by lower courts, allow employers and universities to deny their employees and students coverage for contraceptive care. That birth control benefit has expanded contraceptive coverage with no out-of-pocket costs for more than 62 million people, including 17 million Latinx people and 15 million Black people.

One tweet put it best: “How many bosses don’t know how to turn a Word document into a PDF? Now they get to decide which method of birth control is best for you.”

The idea that your boss (someone with zero medical training or background) can now choose your access to a basic right that determines your health and well being, is ludicrous.

Birth control is preventive health care, and treats serious conditions, while also keeping people from getting pregnant. In my case, it prevents life-threatening ectopic pregnancies and serves as a mood stabilizer.

Right now, Black and Latinx people, for whom basic health care has always been out of reach, and who are suffering most from the COVID-19 pandemic — should have more, not less access to essential care like birth control.

This pandemic is reshaping our world. It is also an opportunity to reshape reproductive freedom. Whether the change is passing safety zone legislation in Louisville so that patients are able to access abortion care without harassment, or advocating for the redistribution of funds to fundamentally shift how we invest in our communities, or contacting your local representative to let them know that abortion care and access to birth control IS what the majority of Kentuckians want, to sharing your story like I am now.

Now more than ever, we need to expand access to health care, including preventive care like birth control, not take it away. We shouldn’t be here in 2020. We shouldn’t have to keep debating the importance of controlling our bodies, but we are, and the fight must continue.

Ashlee Van Schyndel, MPH is a Louisville resident and recent graduate of the University of Louisville School of Public Health.