Social Media Calls for Supreme Court to 'Ban Viagra' After Birth Control Ruling

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled employers can opt-out of providing birth control to their employees. The court ruled 7-2 (with Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissenting) that employers should be granted an exemption to covering birth control, initially provided under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In light of their decision, Twitter users expressed their frustrations with the ruling, which many have said directly impacts women seeking to take control of their reproductive health. In fact, many of those Twitter users said that if birth control is "banned" over this new ruling (which isn't exactly the case), then insurance should not cover Viagra, effectively asking for it to be "banned," as well.

This case revolved around a 2018 regulation from the Department of Health and Human Services that exempted any employer from following the mandate and granting coverage for birth control, given that they had a "religious or moral objection to contraception," per ABC News. Seventeen states challenged this policy, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which led the charge. They called the mandate fundamentally unlawful and said that the rationale was "arbitrary and capricious." The ACA, which President Donald Trump has frequently tried to dismantle throughout his time in office, required insurers to include "preventative care and screenings" as part of "minimal essential coverage" for Americans, but left the Department of Health and Human Services to define what specific services qualified.

Following the Supreme Court's decision, users flocked to Twitter to express their opinions on the ruling. Many of those individuals took the Supreme Court to task, saying that if they wanted to effectively "ban" birth control then they should "ban" the use of Viagra too.