Thirty-six-year-old Melissa Hawthorne stood in the rain with two of her children alongside about a dozen protesters at the corner of Newberry Road and Northwest 62nd Street on Tuesday afternoon.
They stood to raise awareness against the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, or BCRA.
As a “working family,” Hawthorne said she and her husband are not able to afford health care for their three children right now, and BCRA will only further the struggle to pay medical expenses.
“I think there’s a lot of people out there like me: working and still can’t afford access to health care,” Hawthorne said.
Organized by Women’s March Gainesville, the protest aimed to illustrate how BCRA will be directly targeting women’s health by making negative changes in regard to maternity care and contraceptives.
Hawthorne said the legislation is attempting to remove maternity care, which ranges from $30,000 to $50,000, as an “essential health benefit,” meaning women will have to pay extra premiums for maternity coverage policies.
This will also give men the opportunity to choose whether to have maternity care as part of their insurance, leaving women to pay the full cost, Hawthorne said.
Hawthorne added that she believes women should not be responsible for covering the cost of procreation because it takes both a man and a woman to do it.
The legislation is also attempting to reduce access to birth control by removing it from insurance, unless one could afford to pay the direct cost, Hawthorne said.
“Essentially what this is doing to women is saying we will not help you not get pregnant, and we will not help cover the cost of your pregnancy,” she said.
As policy director for Women’s March Gainesville, Hawthorne said the organization aims to host about three events each month to try and engage the community in their issues.
Earlier this month, Women’s March Gainesville painted a mural on the 34th Street Wall illustrating some of their political stances, and it was defaced within 24 hours.
This protest is the first event to be held since the defacement, and Hawthorne said she is grateful for the continued support and hopeful that more residents will take action within the community.
“I really believe we’re only as strong as our weakest links as a country,” Hawthorne said. “We really want to inspire this conversation so that everybody can be forced to think about it and determine where they lie.”
Sophia Eikenberry, a 19-year-old UF neurobiological sciences sophomore, said she joined the protest because BCRA personally affects her as a birth control user and, possibly, a future mother.
“I really just want to get the word out and make sure people are aware of what is going on in our country right now,” Eikenberry said.
