Maci Bookout is looking to use her platform for good after an experience with birth control has her considering people who are in more difficult financial situations than she. In PopCulture.com exclusive preview of Tuesday’s episode of Teen Mom OG, Bookout considers how her own birth control experience would be different had she had different circumstances in life after getting her birth control implant replaced.
“My birth control has been expired for a couple months,” Bookout explains of having the small hormonal implant replaced in her upper arm. “When it expired, [husband Taylor McKinney] and I discussed the possibility of him getting a vasectomy, but he ended up deciding he wasn’t ready to commit to not having any more biological kids. So I’m getting it replaced today.”
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While Bookout was able to easily grin and bear the discomfort of her implant procedure without incident, she later reveals to McKinney that the subject of payment had her thinking about people in a more difficult monetary situation. “My birth control is really expensive. Like when I say expensive for implant, IUD, we’re talking more than $1,000 out-of-pocket cost,” she tells McKinney. “And that’s just for the implant itself. We are in a blessed position where, yeah that’s a s—load of money, but we can do it. But a lot of people can’t.”
Researching local organizations that help women pay for their birth control, Bookout comes upon A Step Ahead Chattanooga. “Even if you have insurance and your insurance only covers a little bit of it, they’ll cover the rest,” she explains to McKinney. “So I really want to reach out to them and see if there’s anything I can do to help, because this is a big deal.”
Her husband is incredibly supportive of Bookout wanting to continue her advocacy work. “You definitely have the platform to make a change, and just look what you’ve done with your advocacy work for PCOS Challenge. I think if you meet with them and you really like what they’re doing…” he advises her.
Last month, Bookout talked to PopCulture about her polycystic ovary syndrome advocacy, which she said has given her a more meaningful platform with which to reach people who watch the show. “The support that I got and the people who reached out to me…” she recalled at the time. “Once I realized this was a much bigger thing for a lot of women than I could even comprehend, that’s when I really dove deep into figuring out what I could do to get things moving for research and funding.”
To see more of Bookout’s journey play out on MTV, don’t miss Teen Mom OG, airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. For more on the Teen Mom OG cast from PopCulture, click here.
