For over 60 years, the morning-after pill has been invented and approved for use among the general public. Despite the longevity of use, the process of gaining access to such an essential feat of medicine is even more difficult than buying a gun, especially for young women.
It is no secret that there are female teenagers, under the age of 18, who are sexually active, however, a good majority of these teens have parents who do not support premarital sexual activity. Without such support, female teens are not able to go to the doctor and get prescribed birth control. Alongside this saddening fact, an article published through the National Institutes of Health states many more downsides of birth control requiring prescriptions (Trussell et al.). If we make all birth control methods more accessible, it would allow for a reduction in pregnancy rates among such female-identifying teenagers because it would allow for easier access to birth control, as well as a larger variety of them to choose from.
A huge reason why most young females don't use birth control when sexually active is influenced by their parents’ traditional beliefs regarding premarital sexual activities. Due to this, when younger females become sexually active, they tend not to tell their parents at all. This leads to these young women not being able to gain access to birth control, even if they wanted to, because they are scared to face the consequences that accompany many traditional parental beliefs.
However, if birth control methods were available over the counter, such young women would face a lot fewer complications when trying to access birth control. Without needing a prescription, young women would be able to easily access birth control because they would not need their parents’ approval to get it. A greater percentage of accessibility would lead to a higher rate of use among female teens, causing teenage pregnancy rates to decrease greatly. This simple change would allow so many young women to feel much safer when sexually active because they would be able to engage in such activities without as much worry about the risk of pregnancy.
Now, some may argue that there is a birth control method available over the counter that younger females don't use. Although the birth control Opill is indeed available over the counter, there is a large array of reasons why young sexually active females decide not to utilize Opill. The most prominent reason is the side effects of this specific pill. Of course, every type of birth control has side effects; however, the severity of each side effect varies drastically depending on the birth control. Each woman's body is extremely different from one another, leading to different reactions to various birth control methods. There have been some women who have utilized Opill
and found themselves with red hives all over their bodies the very next day, or losing unnatural amounts of hair the very next week. Of course, if a young woman has a bad reaction to the only birth control that is accessible to them, they will choose to discontinue the use of the birth control, leading to lower rates of birth control users among this age group of sexually active women.
However, by allowing a larger variety of birth control methods to be available over the counter, more young women would be inclined to continue taking birth control, even if Opill didn't work out for them. With more options, these younger women would be able to experiment with different methods, find the best fit for them, and continue the method of their choice. This is drastically different from having only one option available and that option failing for the individual, pushing them to engage in sexual activity without any form of birth control. The larger the variety of choices would lead to the increase in young women who will use birth control, which would automatically cause a notable change in the amount of teenage pregnancies, alongside just providing a sense of relief for these women.
Switching prescribed birth controls to over-the-counter medications provides many benefits to the greater public, but what it truly does is provide a lifeline for young women who do not have access to prescribed birth controls. This one simple change would save many young women from the fate of having and raising a child as a teenager, while also reducing the stress that comes from just the possibility of that happening. All in all, changing prescribed birth control to be available over the counter is a necessity.
Bibliography
Trussell, J., Stewart, F., Potts, M., Guest, F., & Ellertson, C. (1993). Should oral contraceptives be available without prescription?. American journal of public health, 83(8), 1094–1099. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.83.8.1094
PERSONAL BIO:
Mojda Moradi is from Murrieta, California. She is a rising sophomore at Cal with an intended major in Molecular and Cellular Biology as well as Neuroscience. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in surgery, focusing possibly on either Neurosurgery or Emergency General Surgery. In her free time, she loves to play volleyball, read, or watch movies.
CONTENT WARNING
The following content will discuss mental health within the Southeast Asian American community. The content will explore themes of stigma, intergenerational trauma, and emotional distress. Some readers may find these topics upsetting or triggering. Please take care while reading, and consider stepping away from the screen if needed.
Over the past century, the United States has made significant improvements to its mental health system. Many people today are aware of the resources within this system. Resources such as rehabilitation programs serve as an effective substitute for mental asylums and prisons. Others, such as suicide hotlines, psychiatrists, and therapists, provide support systems for struggling individuals, focusing on preventive care. Finally, psychiatric doctors and nurses treat mental health conditions from the clinical side.
With such a wide variety of prevalent mental health conditions, one may have many reasons to seek out any of these support systems. Rehabilitation programs help people combat substance use, which can prevent them from spiraling into worsening mental conditions. One may seek out a suicide hotline or therapist to deal with harmful thoughts or to gain mental closure over events such as a traumatic relationship. For a more treatment-centered approach, one may consult a psychiatrist to prescribe appropriate medications based on symptoms and family history (National Institute of Mental Health).
Despite the sweeping, nationwide improvements to psychological care, worsening mental health trends continue to persist, especially among the Southeast Asian American population, which includes those of Burmese, Cambodian, Filipino, Hmong or Miao, Indonesian, and Vietnamese descent. A recent survey of mental health shows that these groups faced the highest prevalence of psychological distress, closely followed by the Hispanic and South Asian American populations (Tiwari BB, Zhang DS, 2022). It is important to note that the sources of this psychological distress do not solely stem from income–rather, these public health disparities manifested as a result of deep-seated cultural norms and immigration patterns.
One major external influence on mental health disparities in Southeast Asian Americans is the model minority stereotype. The narrow perception that Asian Americans are more successful and well-adjusted than other minority groups has resulted in this group receiving less medical research and clinical attention. Furthermore, the model minority stereotype not only undermines concern about mental health–it also acts as a positive feedback loop for Asian American immigrants’ strong sense of collectivism (Gao C. et al. 2024). A collectivist mindset often drives a group to prioritize seeking support within their community instead of professional help. In the context of Southeast Asian Americans and mental health, many people will dismiss the idea of seeking professional therapy, often relying on reasons such as money or a professional’s lack of knowledge about one’s personal life.
Mental health also remains a stigmatized and taboo topic among many Southeast Asian communities. Organizations such as the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC) have actively attempted to destigmatize mental health since 2019 by collecting surveys and stories of Southeast Asian American patients and health providers across California. According to the anecdotes of respondents who had yet to access mental health resources, the majority highlighted “cultural barriers in the form of stigma” and “a lack of knowledge about mental health” as the main reasons for not accessing support. Meanwhile, those who previously accessed mental health support received it in the form of medicine or one-on-one talk sessions. This implies that the Southeast Asian American community is extremely resilient–combining this resilience with large-scale mental health awareness advocacy may effectively destigmatize this concept across communities (Lo, 2020).
Historically, a large number of Filipinos entered the US as the Philippines declared independence in 1946, whereas countless Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian refugees entered the US upon fleeing the Vietnam War in 1975. However, Southeast Asian American ethnicities carry a relatively high proportion of refugees over immigrants. Immigrants and refugees may seem similar, but have one key difference–refugees travel out of fear of persecution, and may be forced to travel without proper preparation. For example, Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees may travel to America without financial resources, a lack of formal education, and no knowledge of how to speak English (Misra S. et al. 2020). Additionally, there is a specific type of grief caused by “ambiguous loss” among Southeast Asian Americans. This feeling stems from various events, such as family separation due to war. It also stems from the emotional divide within a refugee or immigrant family: the older generation longs for their homeland while the younger generation loses their roots to assimilation. The grief caused by ambiguous loss is often difficult for Southeast Asian Americans to articulate to mental health professionals (Lo, 2020). This suggests PTSD as a cause of mental health conditions for Southeast Asian refugees first arriving in America.
Cultural barriers due to underrepresentation in medicine also induce Southeast Asian Americans’ decision to avoid care. According to Dr. Jeffrey Hsu, a cardiologist at UCLA Health, AAPI patients need to be heard to feel comfortable seeking care at a clinic (Schlossberg JA, 2023). The solutions to this problem may present in various ways, such as building more clinics in Asian neighborhoods to improve physical access to care. Meanwhile, employing more healthcare professionals with the corresponding cultural and linguistic competencies would help clinics bridge the social gap to traditional families.
In the context of public health, a healthcare service fails to serve its purpose if patients refuse to use it in the first place. Leaving barriers to care unaddressed only worsens community health, even if this problem applies to a specific demographic. In order to mitigate the downward trend of Southeast Asian mental health, cultural incompetencies, language barriers, and social stigmas must be addressed first.
Bibliography
Gao C, et al. (2024). Understanding the factors related to how East and Southeast Asian Immigrant youth and families access mental health and substance use services: A scoping review. National Library of Medicine, 19(7). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0304907. “Help for Mental Illnesses.” National Institute of Mental Health, 2024, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/find-help.
Lo L. (2020) The Right to Heal: Southeast Asian Mental Health in California [PDF File]. Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, searac.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SEARAC-CA-Mental-Health-Policy-Brief_2021.pdf.
Misra S., et al. (2020). Determinants of Depression Risk among Three Asian American Subgroups in New York City. National Library of Medicine, 30(4): 553-562. Doi: 10.18865/ed.30.4.553.
Schlossberg JA. (2023). Confronting mental health barriers in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. UCLA Health, www.uclahealth.org/news/article/confronting-mental-health-barriers-asian-american-and-2. Tiwari BB, Zhang DS. (2022). Differences in Mental Health Status Among Asian Americans During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from the Health, Ethnicity, and Pandemic Study. National Library of Medicine, 6(1):448-453. doi: 10.1089/heq.2022.0029.
PERSONAL BIO:
Dylan Asunto is a rising second-year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. He was born and raised in Queens, New York City, and moved to California three and a half years ago. At Berkeley, he intends to major in Molecular and Cell Biology on the premed track. After undergrad, he aims to work in neurology, emergency medicine, or nephrology, undermining the cultural barriers between underrepresented Asian ethnicities and healthcare. In his free time, he enjoys exploring the Bay Area and taking photos while hanging out with friends.
When I was younger, and my dad would drive my sister and me to school, Hawthorne Municipal Airport was a landmark on our daily journey. I always wondered if it was safe for an airport to be built so close to sprawling suburbs. For Hawthorne’s residents and the rest of the 3,630,000 Americans who live within 500 metres of an airport (a number asserted by the EPA in “National Analysis of the Populations Residing Near or Attending School Near U.S. Airports”), the sound of a small plane overhead is a morning staple. Yet there exists a danger with this sound: proximity to the general aviation industry. With the operation of these aircraft comes the danger of lead emissions as a result of leaded aviation gas (avgas), which is the main source of fuel utilized by aircraft in general aviation (rather small aircraft with 2-15 passenger capacity).
Lead emissions have the power to affect Americans negatively. Their effects have been well studied and documented. In humans, it causes higher blood pressure, kidney disease, and ailing reproductive health. In children, particularly, lead can cause behavior and attention problems, stunted growth, and the loss of developmental skills. The phasing out of leaded gasoline in vehicles was critical to the health of Americans, preventing future generations from dealing with lead poisoning as widespread as decades ago. The aviation sector is responsible for a significant majority of the lead pollution in the United States; in particular, the commonplace usage of leaded gasoline in general aviation (mainly aircraft with capacities of no more than 10 people) is a significant producer of lead emissions in the country. The government has responded to the dangers of lead emissions with EAGLE, a government-industry initiative aiming to reduce lead emissions produced by the general aviation sector, with its goal of phasing out leaded avgas by 2030 in a mainly hands-off approach. This strategy is combined with companies such as Swift Fuels and GAMI developing and pioneering avgas without lead.
Such a laissez-faire attitude on the development of unleaded aviation gasoline illustrates the need for federal government support and incentives for rapid development of unleaded gasoline. Henceforth, the federal government should provide incentives to Swift Fuels, GAMI, and other corporations to develop and pioneer avgas without lead. The providing of these incentives would occur through the allocation of grants towards research and development of non lead avgas, tax credits and infrastructure grants for airports that buy these non lead avgas products and the further expediting of FAA certification within safety boundaries, in order to meet the 2030 phase out goal set by the EAGLE initiative, with a tentative dream of phasing out leaded gasoline in general aviation before this 2030 deadline.
The grants would also go towards the intricacies and tweaking of non-lead avgas in order to obtain FAA certification, which, of course, would be expedited within safety requirements. The creation of these non-lead avgas options would need to be expedited, cutting the amount of time necessary for manufacturers to develop their own products in anticipation of certification. With this, the government would be able to achieve its goal of phasing out leaded avgas in general aviation, benefiting the air quality of more than three million Americans, lowering their risk of lead poisoning.
Currently, due to non-leaded avgas’s higher cost compared to leaded avgas counterparts, the 2030 phase-out goal isn’t economically in reach. The EAGLE initiative’s leaders want the market to choose, but the market’s choosing leaded avgas—choosing cost over health, and it’ll stay that way until the federal government provides support that allows for the development and adoption of non-lead avgas in the general aviation market. It may not be necessarily safe for Hawthorne Municipal Airport and similar airports to be so close to lively suburbs. Still, it can be with the right government interference—should it put the good of the country above all else, aiding the switch to non-leaded avgas rather than standing by, for both the health and economic benefit of the American people.
PERSONAL BIO:
Christian T. Ghion is from Inglewood, CA. Christian is a current Freshman at UC Berkeley. Majoring in Molecular Environmental Biology, minoring in Global Public Health. In the future, Christian aspires to be a Physician. Christian’s hobbies include traveling, soccer, PC Building, Instant Film Photography, and Video Editing.
In many parts of the world, healthcare can feel like a gamble. A few years ago, my mom began experiencing intense abdominal pain and went to our local hospital in East LA seeking answers. After a brief evaluation, she was told nothing was wrong and sent home with pain medication. But the pain didn’t go away; it quickly got worse. Just days later, we rushed her to a different hospital outside our neighborhood, where she was rushed into emergency surgery. Part of her intestine had to be removed. The question still haunts me: why wasn’t this caught the first time? Would the outcome have been different if we lived somewhere wealthier? Why does the quality of care vary so drastically between neighborhoods?
This is not just my family’s story- it’s the reality for millions of people living in under-resourced, underserved communities. Your ZIP code shouldn’t be more predictive of your health outcomes than your genetic code, but it is. Research shows that up to 60% of your health is determined by your ZIP code, largely due to the nature of the communities people reside in, including access to healthcare, healthy food, safe environments, and economic opportunities. Studies have found that life expectancy and health outcomes can vary dramatically between neighboring ZIP codes, even within the same city. For example, one ZIP code may have high rates of health insurance and homeownership, while a nearby ZIP code struggles with limited access to healthcare and economic opportunities-leading to worse health and shorter lifespans for its residents. These findings are supported by research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and peer-reviewed journals such as Health Affairs and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In places like East LA, access to quality care, timely diagnosis, and preventive services is limited. Not because people don’t care about their health, but because the system doesn’t treat all communities equally. Hospitals in wealthier areas often have more specialists, better equipment, and more funding, while those in low-income neighborhoods are underfunded and overwhelmed. These inequities lead to delayed diagnoses, worse outcomes, and unnecessary suffering, particularly for communities of color. Research has shown that poverty and poor education-key components of low socioeconomic status-are linked to ill health and early death, with an impact on life expectancy nearly as great as smoking or physical inactivity.
Delayed diagnosis isn't just about a lack of resources; it's also about bias. Research shows that Black and Brown patients are less likely to be believed when they report pain or symptoms, and are often undertreated compared to white patients. Women, too, are more likely to be dismissed, with their symptoms labeled as “normal” or blamed on stress. For example, a 2019 study published in Nature Communications found that in 72% of cases, women experienced longer waits for a diagnosis than men, as I read in the article titled "Population-wide analysis of differences in disease progression" on the Nature website. When doctors don’t believe patients, it can delay symptom relief and the care they urgently need. These disparities are even more alarming when we consider chronic illnesses like autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and cancer, where early detection is often the difference between life and death. My mom wasn’t just failed by a hospital; she was failed by a system that too often ignores the pain of people who look like her. These disparities are even more alarming when we consider chronic illnesses like autoimmune diseases, diabetes, and cancer, where early detection is often the difference between life and death.
But we don’t have to accept this. We can start by demanding equitable funding for public hospitals, especially those serving low-income and minority communities. We need mandatory training in diagnostic bias for healthcare professionals and greater transparency in hospital-level data on treatment outcomes by race and income. Expanding community-based preventive care, like mobile clinics, health educators, and culturally competent outreach, can help detect health issues before they become emergencies. Additionally, we need to empower patients through health literacy efforts so they feel confident advocating for themselves when the system fails them.
Healthcare shouldn’t be a lottery system where your odds depend on your address. Everyone deserves to be heard, believed, and treated with urgency, regardless of where they live. My mom’s story isn’t rare, and that’s the problem. It’s time we stop treating healthcare like a privilege and start fighting for it as a basic human right.
PERSONAL BIO:
Ines Sanchez is a sophomore majoring in Nutrition and Metabolic Biology at UC Berkeley. She grew up in East Los Angeles, a community that has shaped much of who she is today. As a Latina university student, she is passionate about pursuing a career in medicine, specifically in family medicine. Ines’ goal is to become a physician who not only treats illness but also advocates for preventive care and health education in underserved communities like the one she comes from. She hopes to inspire others from similar backgrounds to pursue their dreams and to help bridge the gap in healthcare access and equity. Outside of academics, Ines loves to paint, play basketball, and explore new places. These hobbies allow her to express her creative side, stay active, and keep an open mind to new experiences.
Darwin's theory of evolution states that only those who are physically fit are more likely to survive and reproduce. Any organism that perishes has fallen victim to the laws of evolution. The policymakers and scientists involved in the history of eugenics went as far as weaponizing this theory, implementing it into multiple aspects of human society. Ultimately, it was a flawed justification attempting to prove that some lives are more valuable than others. Not everyone receives the social and economic privileges to participate fairly in the race for human fitness. Today, we are fighting against another form of eugenics—whether or not Medicaid should require work requirements for beneficiaries to receive healthcare.
According to CBS, on May 22nd, the Grand Old Party (GOP) released legislation that would require Medicaid beneficiaries to prove they are engaged in some sort of work, volunteering, or educational program to receive Medicaid (CBS). While posed as a necessity to prevent “waste, fraud, and abuse” in the enrollment process, what this new legislation really does is slash Medicaid for people who need it most. These include low-income people with chronic health conditions, disabilities, and unhoused populations. In previous attempts to implement work requirements, such as in Arkansas, the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found the result was 18,000 people losing coverage, leading to an increase in the percentage of people who were uninsured (KFF).
These policies undermine health equity. They perpetuate the ideology that only those who are “deserving” of public assistance should receive it. It hinges on the notion that work is the best way out of poverty, rather than institutional change that addresses the US's increasing wealth gap. Your health is established as a product of your productivity rather than a fundamental human right. So when people are unable to afford life-saving treatments, screenings, insulin, etc., this policy blames victims of systemic injustice. It furthers the mistrust in our healthcare system and leads to a sort of learned helplessness where people may avoid care for fear of costs.
Losing Medicaid has the potential to be a public health crisis and calls for action. Rather than denying people Medicaid benefits, we should be working to expand them. If fraud is a concern, policymakers should implement digital checkers that verify people's income through tax and housing records. The reality is that the Medicaid beneficiaries who aren’t working are doing so due to many structural barriers, including chronic illness, lack of childcare, unreliable transportation, untreated mental health issues, etc. It isn’t simply because they don’t want to. Denying healthcare is denying people a chance to truly live and is a form of modern-day eugenics that attempts to filter out those deemed “unfit” to survive.
Bibliography
“Medicaid Recipients Could Face Work Requirements under GOP Bill. Here Are the Details.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, www.cbsnews.com/news/medicaid-bill-work-requirement-funding-cuts-what-to-know/.
Elizabeth Hinton and Robin Rudowitz. Published: Feb 18, 2025. “5 Key Facts About Medicaid Work Requirements.” KFF, 9 Apr. 2025, www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/5-key-facts-about-medicaid-work-requirements/.
PERSONAL BIO:
Suchita Khanal is a fourth-year majoring in public health at UC Berkeley. She was born in Nepal but grew up in El Cerrito, CA. In the future, she aims to earn an MD and an MPH to become a family physician serving underprivileged communities. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, painting, and reading.
While volunteering at the North Berkeley Senior Center, an elderly man I saw weekly pulled me aside and whispered, “Did you know my friend buses—sometimes bikes—all the way here from El Cerrito to help feed her family?” My eyes followed his pointer finger and spotted his friend just then: she was small and usually carried herself gently, but today, she was drenched and exhausted from the rain. Nevertheless, she hurried towards our table, grinning ear-to-ear. This man and his friend are just two of over 60 seniors who regularly rely on the food pantry each week, rain or shine.
Unfortunately, his friend’s experience is also not an isolated case. Currently, Feeding America estimates that 12.2% of residents in Alameda County struggle with food insecurity, which is roughly 200,000 people. Systemic barriers have only exacerbated food insecurity, or a lack of access to healthy and affordable food, further. Many people are born into their socioeconomic status, and those in poverty struggle to choose between paying for food, medical bills, housing, and more. This inaccessibility to food disproportionately impacts low-income communities of color, and this has been linked to increased risk of chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. Furthermore, Alameda County’s average cost for a meal is 25% higher than the national average (Feeding America), but current wages struggle to account for the county’s high cost of living. Additionally, researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that “1 out of 4 (25%) low-income immigrant adults in California who legally qualified for public health or nutrition programs reported avoiding them out of fear that participating would negatively impact their immigration status” and “more than half of [those] adults were food insecure” (UCLA). Our current political climate should not deny or politicize our basic needs, but it does and has for generations.
To effectively alleviate food insecurity and systemic issues, we must reimagine how food is distributed and shared. For example, the “Farm-to-School” movement focuses on reducing the impacts of climate change by working with organic-regenerative farmers, improving the local economy by establishing a long-term partnership between farmers and the schools, and providing schoolchildren with access to healthy and locally sourced food (Alice Waters Institute). This approach allows us to address environmental health disparities that also impact low-income communities of color, teach schoolchildren about nutritious foods that are seasonal and local, while also removing for-profit middlemen to ensure that farmers are paid directly and fairly. By emphasizing food education, this movement can guide families to join local community gardens, grow their food, or buy produce seasonally for the best value. Families can then use cost savings from groceries toward covering other essential expenses, such as their monthly rent.
Food insecurity impacts all ages, and we can begin to transform food access through agricultural and educational movements, such as “Farm-to-School,” by ensuring that we can nourish our children with healthy meals, protect our planet, empower land stewardship, and reinvest in our local economy. By tackling food insecurity, we can empower both the individual and their entire communities. Food is a human right, and we must protect the land to honor the people who work it and those it feeds.
Bibliography
“Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education and Regenerative Agriculture.” The Edible Schoolyard Project, 1 May 2025, edibleschoolyard.org/alice-waters-institute-edible-education-and-regenerative-agriculture . Accessed 12 May 2025.
“Food Insecurity.” UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, healthpolicy.ucla.edu/our-work/food-insecurity. Accessed 12 May 2025.
“Hunger & Poverty in Alameda County, California: Map the Meal Gap.” Overall (All Ages) Hunger & Poverty in the United States, map.feedingamerica.org/county/2017/overall/california/county/alameda. Accessed 12 May 2025.
PERSONAL BIO:
Kylie Nguyen is a sophomore at UC Berkeley, majoring in public health on the pre-medical track. Having grown up in Oakland, CA, she is passionate about addressing racial/ethnic health disparities and food insecurity through community outreach and advocacy. She aspires to earn her Master's in Public Health as well as become a pediatrician. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, hiking, and gardening.