Makayla White was absolutely fed up after scrolling through her Twitter feed that was full of college aged guys tweeting about how their money shouldn't go towards birth control and how they supported the vote declaring that it would no longer be required to be covered by insurance. The news of the Senate voting to leave 55 million women without affordable birth control, a consequence of the dismantling of the ACA caused an absolute uproar on Twitter.
In the midst of this uproar came the tweet that went viral:
Among the 93.5 thousand likers, and 24.8k retweets, Makayla received a lot of backlash for her stance. However, she put these haters to shame with ease.
I had the opportunity to ask Makayla how she would describe the feedback she has gotten from her stand against the men who not only believe that they are funding birth control, but also that birth control is only meant to prevent pregnancy.
Her response: Most are along the lines of "my money shouldn't fund your pleasure" or "keep your legs closed if you don't want to be responsible for the consequences." All are directed towards preventing pregnancy because I don't think most boys understand that birth control also has a lot of medical benefits. I was put on birth control when I was 14 (not sexually active) because I'm anemic so I have a severe iron deficiency that would make me lose too much blood each month. But boys instantly want to assume I want free birth control because I want to sleep around 🙄 And they all assume that I tweeted it because I'm living off of their money when I really just tweeted it to stand in solidarity with the girls who truly couldn't afford it because I'm lucky enough that if I had to start paying for birth control I could."
The reality of it all is that birth control isn't a free ticket to "sleep around." Just because a woman is on birth control doesn't mean that she wants a free handout that serves as a ticket to sleep around. It could mean a number of things. It means that she made her health a priority. It means that she could have issues with irregular menstrual cycles, pelvic pain during menstrual cycles, unbearable cramps, treatment of estrogen deficiency, and yes, she wishes to prevent pregnancy. No woman should be made to feel guilty about valuing her health. It is her right.
Many women cannot afford birth control without the help of their insurance. Times are heard. People struggle just to make ends meet, especially young women who are going to school full time or even part time and can't work enough to afford this added expense. Should men be allowed to make this choice for the 55 million women who cannot afford birth control?
This stance does not mean that many of us could not afford to pay the full amount of birth control. This is a young woman standing with women who don't have this privilege. 
When asked if there was anything else she wished to say to the men and women out there on this matter, Makayla stated that, "When it comes to women's health, women should have more of a say about it in this country."
One thing's for sure, this young woman's voice was heard!
