I watched my mother endure a physically, emotionally, and financially abusive relationship for over 20 years

Most victims of domestic violence cite children and financial restraints as the top reasons why they stay.

Birth control provides victims of abusive relationships a freedom and way out of their situation.

Birth control does so much more than regulate periods and allow a woman to choose when, if ever, she wants to become pregnant. Birth control helps treat endometriosis, protects against pelvic inflammatory disease, eases menstrual migraines and heavy bleeding, and even lowers the risk of some skin cancers, according to WebMD.

But there's another benefit to birth control that's rarely discussed, and that's the freedom and control it gives women in abusive relationships.

An estimated 38,028,000 women will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetimes, according to HuffPost. In the United States alone, 4,774,000 women endure physical violence by an intimate partner every year. Between 40 and 45% of women will be physically abused and/or raped during a relationship, and an estimated 98 percent of all financial abuse occurs in domestic violence cases.

As a mother myself, I realize the struggles my own mom faced. Danielle Campoamor/INSIDER

Although those numbers are staggering, heartbreaking, indicative of a systemic problem, they're not just numbers to me and women like me. They're not just points to make in the seemingly never-ending debate on women's health and reproductive rights. They're everyday life. They're inescapable. They're a set of hands around our throats, another bruise we have to hide ,and another person claiming they love us, but telling us we're worthless and don't deserve safety and freedom.

I grew up in a home plagued with violence, and was beaten by my father when I disagreed with him over a Sunday afternoon football game, didn't eat my dinner with enough enthusiasm, or simply deigned to exist in my father's space after a particularly taxing day of work.

Every part of my mother's life, of my life, was controlled by my father's rage, physical prowess, and ability to create and sustain an environment of fear. My father made my mother quit her job when she found out she was pregnant, so she became stay-at-home mom and dependent on my father financially. He only let her purchase something after receiving his approval. He forbid her from spending time with friends or family without his explicit permission. He accompanied her to doctor appointments, and even a trip to the dentist, to ensure what was said didn't prove alarming or troublesome. My father controlled every aspect of our lives. And, as a deacon at our church — a "good" family man — no one knew what was going on inside our seemingly perfect, middle-class home.

My brother and I were both abused by the man who was supposed to protect us. Danielle Campoamor/INSIDER

So when I was curled up on the bathroom floor — doubled over with excruciating cramps, throwing up every 30 minutes, missing four days of school every month — and I asked my father if I could go on birth control, his answer was no. In fact, his answer was a slap across the face while calling me a "slut" and "whore." To my abusive father, birth control was a sign that I was having sex; a step toward independence and complete control over my body; an indication of the power I could have over my own life. The power my father didn't want to lose.

I couldn't go to my mother's OB-GYN. Any charge would show up on a bill my father was sure to find. I couldn't go to a walk-in clinic alone. I didn't have any form of health insurance I could provide even the kindest of receptionists.

But I could go to the local Planned Parenthood, and that's exactly where my mother took me.

Every single year, Planned Parenthood prevents an estimated 560,000 pregnancies, according to the official website. And at many of the 56 independent local affiliates and 600 Planned Parenthood health centers, staff are specifically trained to care for and support victims of domestic violence. In San Diego, for example, staff at a local clinic "gained advanced training to help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault" via a grant given as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). And just recently, Planned Parenthood launched their #Fight4BirthControl Campaign, which "takes a three-pronged approach that aims to encourage employers to keep birth control on their insurance plans, even though the federal mandate has been rolled back. It involves employee engagement, employer engagement, and political accountability."

According to the Institute for Family Studies, children and financial restraints are among the top reasons why women stay in physically abusive relationships. When every aspect of your life is controlled by someone else, even something as seemingly mundane but overwhelming significant as taking a birth control pill and side-stepping pregnancy can be a step toward freedom and safety.

I've realized the importance of having financial freedom from a man. Danielle Campoamor/INSIDER

And yet, Trump rolling back former President Barack Obama's birth control mandate will make that next step undeniably more difficult to take. Taking away access to affordable and low-cost birth control won't just keep women from controlling their reproductive choices and respective futures; it will keep victims locked in a cycle of physical, verbal, and financial violence and abuse.

Companies can begin dropping birth control coverage in January of 2018. Now that my mother has left my father, and I haven't seen or communicated with him in years, I don't fear for myself or my mom when it comes to gaining access to the care either one of us may or may not need. I can procure birth control any time I want, for now, and I don't have to fear for my safety in order to do so.

But not every woman in the United States can say the same. And as the result of this administration's continued attack on women's health and reproductive rights, more women will have to tell to their scared, suffering daughters that they can go to Planned Parenthood — but not if they tell their father.