Affordable protection

We sympathize with the thousands of women on the campus whose mouths dropped and pockets emptied when the prices of birth control quintupled in 2005, though a leftover stock of birth control allowed the University Health Center to maintain a lower price for birth control for almost two years. Many universities, however, felt the sting right away, and prices at our university have finally caught up as well.

Hiking the prices from $10 to $55, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 made it tougher for women at the university to find an affordable and reliable form of birth control, something the health center had always provided. With many insurance plans not covering the cost of the pills, regardless of whether or not they were for medicinal or contraceptive purposes, the act squashed many students' abilities to pay for the pill.

Prior to the act, pharmaceutical companies provided birth control at lower costs to organizations such as Planned Parenthood and college clinics in exchange for the free advertising and publicity their products received. However, Congress banned this practice because it believed drug companies were abusing this privilege, according to Rohit Mahajan, spokesman for Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.J.), causing the prices of birth control at the health center to skyrocket.

It is ridiculous that due to an oversight in the current policy, students are forced to struggle to pay for the ability to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies. Many people reiterated the old arguments, that Viagra is covered by almost all medical plans, but women have to pay out of pocket for the right to have safer sex and that access to reliable forms of birth control is a key part of reducing unwanted pregnancies as well as the need for abortions. But for two years, female students at those universities where the price increases went into effect right away suffered as a result of the legislators' oversight.

So with the proposal of the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act earlier this month, female students once again have a chance to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies without having to empty their savings accounts each month. We support the fact that lawmakers are trying to reverse a policy that has adversely affected students who wish to practice safe sex.

It is imperative that legislators stand behind this proposal and support its immediate passage. Students who choose to be sexually active should also have the right to choose to use affordable forms of birth control. Increasing the price of not only the most reliable, but also the most popular form of birth control is a slap in the face to those who choose to be safe. The safer you are when it comes to sex, the more we charge you. Is this the policy lawmakers want to enforce? Those students who are responsible enough to seek out birth control prior to sexual activity should not be penalized, and unfortunately, if the current proposal doesn't pass, female students will continue to pay and an arm and a leg to prevent the creation of unwanted ones.