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Should women worry about their access to birth control under Trump?

Posted at 6:49 AM, Jan 20, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-20 12:22:25-05
As Donald Trump prepares to takes office, women across the country are stocking up on birth control fearing it won't be as available once the new administration works to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
 
Obamacare allows women to get birth control for free, but it could be cut with a new healthcare plan. Dr. Daniel Derksen, the director at the U of A Center for Rural Health and says if funding for birth control was cut, it would not be immediate:
 
"Now is the time to ask the questions to get the care you need, to get it while it's affordable. But I think it's natural for people to feel apprehensive," Derksen said. 
 
So should women stock up on birth control? Derksen said it's not necessary, but if individuals are considering getting an IUD or other forms of contraception, now is the time to get it. 
 
"There's reasons for people to be apprehensive," Derksen said. "For a long time we didn't pay for primary care and services, and that could go away. That could easily be dismantled in the budgetary process they're considering right now."
 
Derksen says he's hoping that eventually birth control can be made more available-- he says ideally it would be over the counter.
 
There will be a women's march this Saturday in Tucson beginning at Armory Park at 10 a.m.