My university refused to give me birth control. Now I’m afraid others will experience that, too.

The Catholic university I went to gave me a diploma. But when I needed birth control — something just as important for my future — I was on my own. For me and for a lot of people who go to religious universities, this is a common experience. And after the recent Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Pennsylvania, my experience could become even more common. And that’s not good for anyone.

In July, the Supreme Court ruled that universities and employers can deny students and employees health insurance coverage that would allow them to get birth control. This means that if the people in charge of a university or company have a “moral” or religious objection to birth control, they can exclude it from the health insurance offered to students and employees.

I’m accident prone, so when I went away to college I got to know the campus health center staff really well. When it was hard for me to get back to my usual provider, it just made sense for me to ask the campus health center staff about birth control. They shrugged me off saying, “That’s not really our specialty.”

It should be. Birth control is essential health care — no matter what kind of school you go to or who your boss is. Nearly nine in 10 women will use it in their lifetimes. And birth control is so important for students — the ability to get the pill before age 21 is the most influential factor enabling women already in college to stay there. It’s how we build careers after college. And for many people, it’s the medicine they need to treat endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and other ovarian conditions. It’s how many people manage painful or irregular periods. Birth control is a vital part of our lives.

Yet no other kind of health care is subject to the whims of your boss or your college administration. Sexual and reproductive health care — including birth control — has been the target of political attacks for generations. Policies like my university’s and the Trump administration’s are part of a long history going back to the Comstock laws — when the state dictated what was “moral” in people’s personal lives and made disseminating birth control a federal offense. We should not be bringing back ideologies from 1873.

At my university, it went beyond birth control. The health center there wouldn’t provide prescription birth control, STI tests, or even condoms. Not even when I was sexually assaulted and called the campus health center for help. No emergency contraception, no STI testing, nothing — when I needed it most. When I asked if they knew where the closest Planned Parenthood was, they told me to use my own resources to find out. Thankfully, I have access to the magic of the internet and the means to travel.

But not everyone has the resources to figure out how to get health care in this country. Health insurance is confusing too, especially when you’re a young person navigating it for the first time. I was lucky to find a Planned Parenthood health center near campus, which I continued to visit for sexual and reproductive health care throughout the rest of my time in college. I even got a Pap test there when my campus health center, of course, refused to provide it.

Getting birth control should be easy. Yet, the Supreme Court is letting the Trump administration’s rule affect not just students like me, but women, families, and LGBTQ+ people whose employers have their own moral or religious objections to people accessing this care.

I’m afraid for them. I’m afraid for students who need birth control to focus on their classes and prepare for their futures. I’m afraid for myself, a recent college graduate looking for a job. Will my future employer provide health insurance that covers birth control? I believe everyone should be able to get the health care they need — including birth control — and that we should be working to make it easier to access. I wish the Supreme Court agreed.

Mattise Wood recently graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington with dual degrees in Biology, Women and Gender Studies, and Comprehensive Leadership.