Last year's Congress made a technical error writing a new law, and the cost of birth control in many clinics is rising to almost 900 percent of what it was just months ago. Women who were paying $5 to $10 per month are now paying $40 to $50 for birth control. For the college students and low-income women who will be affected by this cost hike, that's no small matter.

For 20 years, drug companies have made it possible for college health clinics and safety-net providers to purchase birth control at low prices in order to pass along the savings to the college students and low-income women who rely on them.

However, this fall, college women returned to campus to discover that the birth control that previously cost them $5-10 for a monthly supply now cost $40-50 per pack, making it far more difficult to afford. Due to a provision included in the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA), as of January 1, 2007, every college and university health center and hundreds of safety-net providers were unintentionally cut off from accessing low-cost birth control and passing on the low price to college women and low-income women. Skyrocketing prices are putting birth control out of reach for the college students and low-income women in need of family planning services to help them prevent unintended pregnancy.

Please ask your representative to co-sponsor the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act, legislation that would make a technical fix to the DRA and restore safety-net and university clinics' ability to access low-cost contraceptives. This legislation would not cost either the federal government or state Medicaid agencies. It would merely allow drug manufacturers to offer deeply discounted prices to safety net health care providers.

You can send an automated response by accessing the Planned Parenthood website. Source: Planned Parenthood

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen