Right now, I am a doctoral candidate in health policy, studying barriers to access to health care. I’m doing this work because I care about everyone’s right to enjoy equal opportunity in a just society, and I believe health care plays a key role in protecting the range of opportunities open to individuals. In my case, access to birth control–and when I needed it, abortion services–protected my opportunity to pursue this line of work. I am fortunate to have insurance coverage that offers me options in birth control methods, so I could try more than one and select the option that minimized health side effects and kept me plugging away at work. And, I am fortunate to have been able to access high quality abortion care when my birth control method failed, which is a statistical possibility even when it is used according to clinical guidelines. Perhaps not everyone would agree with my preference to delay child bearing until I make reasonable progress on the goals I have set for myself, but I am grateful for the right and means to have made those decisions on my own. Access to comprehensive reproductive health care has meant I can focus on contributing to society as a scholar, and I hope to protect the same space for other women to pursue their own role in society.