If the Republican Party is able to get its act together after eight years of whining about a health care law that brought health insurance to millions of Americans, the Affordable Care Act will be no more. It, supposedly, will be replaced by some sort of top secret plan that, depending on who you ask, will end Medicaid expansions and shift health insurance coverage to health savings accounts — which, despite what Speaker of the House Paul Ryan thinks, are not the same as having health insurance — to promote “financial responsibility.” Or maybe the new law will keep some of the popular parts of the ACA, such as preserving coverage for people with pre-existing conditions or allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance, without keeping the individual mandate. And, if you ask President Donald Trump, his replacement magically creates some sort of system where everyone has high-quality coverage without high premiums or deductibles, all without raising taxes. And yes, the plan is truly top secret. When Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, tried to read the draft bill that House Republicans are working on, he was turned away by Capitol security, according to a March 2 Vox article.

Regardless of what happens to the ACA, there is one provision that the Trump administration and the Republican-led Congress either do not care about or, in the case of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, are openly hostile to: the birth control mandate. The ACA requires all insurances to cover Food and Drug Administration-approved birth-control methods, including the hormonal pill, patch and ring; the Depo shot; long-acting reversible contraceptives like the implant or intrauterine devices; and permanent sterilization, without cost-sharing. There are, of course, some exceptions; certain groups with sincerely-held religious beliefs, like houses of worship, closely-held private companies and certain religious hospitals and schools, can opt out of covering birth control — although in most cases, through waivers and work-arounds, employees can get birth control without cost-sharing, as outlined by numerous HHS agreements and the 2014 Hobby Lobby case.

Even with this law, birth control without cost-sharing was hardly a guarantee for the Americans who need it. An Aug. 16, 2015 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy research group of 20 insurance providers in five states, found that five companies required copays on the Nuva ring and one did not cover it at all. Two companies did not cover the implant, even with cost-sharing. Three only covered the patch with cost-sharing. Only half of the providers covered all FDA-approved IUDs, and one did not cover the copper ParaGard IUD at all. And even with the ACA protections in place, an insurance company could still decline to cover a specific brand or formulation of the hormonal pill, even if it is the only brand that works for someone, because the requirements only guarantee access to the generic version.

Here are the facts: According to a September 2016 Guttmacher Institute study, there are 61 million women of childbearing age, defined as between the ages of 15 and 44 years old, in the United States. Of these women, 43 million are sexually active and do not want to become pregnant, but are at risk of unplanned pregnancy without reliable contraceptives. A Feb. 14, 2013 report from the CDC found that 99 percent of American women of childbearing age have used some form of birth control at least once in their life. According to an Oct. 18, 2012 CDC report, just under two-thirds of women between 15 and 44 are currently using at least one form of contraceptive on a regular and reliable basis. Teenagers were the least likely to report using any form of contraception during sex, but more than 80 percent of those in the 15-19 age bracket reported using at least one form of protection during sex. Among women whose incomes are above 300 percent of the federal poverty line, 92 percent reported using birth control, compared to the 89 percent of women who earn less than 150 percent of the poverty line. While white and Asian women are more likely to use contraceptives than their black counterparts, more than 80 percent of women in all three groups report using birth control, according to the same study. A 2011 study from the Guttmacher Institute found that Catholic and Evangelical Protestant women are as likely as their Mainline Protestant and Jewish peers to use birth control regularly. Overall, the vast majority of American women — regardless of age, race, income or religion — use some form of birth control regularly.

The birth control mandate, according to a Jan. 17 Forbes article, saved Americans 1.4 billion dollars on copays and out-of-pocket spending in 2013 alone. In fact, research shows that fully covering birth control is the financially wise thing to do; a 2014 article from the Milbank Quarterly, a peer-reviewed healthcare journal that focuses on healthcare policy, found that in 2010, every dollar spent on helping women access birth control and prevent unplanned pregnancy led to seven dollars in federal savings that otherwise would have gone to pre-natal care, childbirth and early childhood care.

If I sound like I am overly outraged about this, it is because I am. After graduating Brandeis in 2016, I started working at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts as a patient administrator. Every day that I am at work, I have to explain the nuances of the law to patients — no, insurance companies are not legally required to cover routine STI testing; yes, you do have to pay a copay for an office visit, even if it is just to get a birth control prescription written; sorry, I don’t know if you will get a bill for the medically necessary pregnancy test we need to run for you to get an implant, IUD or the Depo shot. And every day I am at work, grateful patients thank me for helping them access affordable and effective birth control methods. No matter their stories, all of their reasons for wanting affordable birth control are valid.

There is the trans man who already has to pay out of pocket for his hormone therapy and just needs a form of birth control that will end his periods and not make him go bankrupt. There is the 20-something with endometriosis who has found the one pill with the right hormone combination to prevent her crippling cramps, but it is not generic, and she needs to fight to make sure her insurance company will cover it. There is the mother of three who does not want any more children but cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on a hysterectomy. There is the teenager who is ready to become sexually active with their partner but does not want to worry about an unplanned pregnancy derailing their future. All of them got the birth control that was right for them, and none of them had to worry about cost-sharing making it unaffordable.

Providing cost-free birth control does not encourage teenagers to have sex. It is not subsidizing women for “high-risk” sexual behavior — it does take two to tango, and nobody ever seems to worry about how most insurance companies fully cover the cost of Viagra. And beyond preventing pregnancy, non-barrier methods of birth control can help with heavy periods, menstrual cramps and PMS symptoms and acne, among other health concerns. In fact, nine percent of women have never had sex and still use birth control for non-contraceptive purposes, according to a November 2011 Guttmacher Institute study. These women are not more deserving of affordable birth control than women who happen to want to have sex but do not want to get pregnant. Rather, providing birth control without cost-sharing simply encourages all Americans to make safe, responsible choices that are right for them. This should be celebrated, not slashed.