House Republicans are attacking a recent decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to require new insurance plans to cover birth control with no co-pays.

They are pushing to undermine this preventive care provision by allowing Catholic hospitals and schools to be exempted, even though these organizations employ and serve individuals of different faiths and backgrounds. It would mean millions of workers and their families would lose access to affordable birth control.

For college students like me who worry about the cost of living and tuition, the HHS decision is huge. I want to plan a family — but only after I’ve graduated and am financially stable.

The reality is that women of all faiths use birth control and would benefit from access to birth control with no co-pays: 99 percent of sexually experienced women in the U.S. use birth control at some point in their lives, including 98 percent of sexually experienced Catholic women. Birth control is an essential part of women’s preventive health care.

Representative Noem and the House Republicans are wrong on this issue. Instead of focusing on jobs and the economy, they are spending their time trying to take affordable birth control away from women.

Libby Trammel

SDSU Student