"If men could get pregnant, abortion clinics would be like Starbucks, there would be two on every block, four in every airport, and the morning-after pill would come in different flavors like sea salt and cool ranch."
Seth Meyers in 2012 asked Nasim Pedrad's character, Arianna Huffington, on Saturday night live what would happen if men could get pregnant, that was her response. Although its a satirical point of view, I might also make the stretch that if men needed to be on birth control, not only would it be easier to get and more affordable, but the nasty symptoms would all disappear within an extremely short period of time. When we think about how things might change if men needed to use a product, we notice how plagued women have been with difficulties of getting the products ourselves. This is why I argue that the government and medical communities have and continue to fail to set aside their opinions in the policy making and distribution of birth control, vital medications and devices.
The first place one may be able to see this is in the difference between distribution and marketing in the global North and global south. Chikako Takeshita discusses this topic heavily in her book, The Global Biopolitics of the IUD. She shows that the IUD, throughout its development and growing popularity in the US, was marketed to specific types of woman; and for good reason. When the initial models were wrecking women's bodies, the device was marketed to woman who had already had families, so that if something happened, they at least had a kid or two. It was a completely different story in the "global south" though, where the product was more forced upon women rather than offered. The women were convinced it was the best option for their bodies and economic status; even though it wasn't a one and done type of device. There still is no research to thoroughly comprehend how much damage the initial model had in low income nations. The worst part is that it was not in the best interest of these women, the medical community was deploying this as a population control device (which is often rooted in racial superiority complexes), completely opposite of the US. The medical community took it upon themselves to decide what was best for those communities.
The government however is keeping access to birth control small and closed off. The Republicans in the US government continually attack the Affordable Care Act in order to restrict access to birth control among other things. The 2018 midterm elections may slow this process, but their strive to do these things are often rooted in proven falsities about birth control devices being abortifaciants, the ideas of life at conception, and Catholic traditions of using no forms of birth control. Ted Cruz was once recorded saying the lack of birth control was, "utter made up nonsense" but he justified this by claiming theres no rubber shortage in the country. It is vital that the Democrats use their new stronghold in the House wisely.
Now times have changed, birth control is advertised and marketed far differently now than it was in the 70's or even 10 years ago, but somehow the discourse and shame still exists with women being on certain types of birth control; something the medical community has not stopped from fueling.
There could also be plenty of arguments about government trying to destroy the ACA for many different reasons other than birth control, but many people have to explicitly say in their campaigns what their stance on reproductive rights are. Politicians (particularly the old white male ones) fail to keep their hands in their own pockets and mouths shut when it comes to other women's' uteruses.
There's plenty of progress that has been made in the realm of women being able to speak for themselves and chose options for what best might fit their body in term of birth control, but it is still under the control of government regulations and medical communities.
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