The cost of birth control for college students could decrease under the Affordable Birth Control Act, a provision of the federal spending bill signed into law by President Obama earlier this month.
In 2005, Congress passed the Deficit Reduction Act, which inadvertently eliminated the discounts on contraceptives pharmaceutical companies could offer to family planning clinics and student health services, causing the cost of birth control to climb for many students.
""By all accounts it was completely a mistake,"" state Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, D-Madison, said. ""I think it was just an oversight in drafting it, but it's one of those things that once it went through, it never got fixed because their agenda was too busy.""
The new bill restores incentives for popular brands to provide discounts to students, but University Health Services Executive Director Sarah Van Orman said she is not sure if the pharmaceutical industry will be willing to do this again.
Many students switched over to less expensive generic brands, but Van Orman said because the prices of some popular brands increased, students who could not afford them had access to a much smaller selection.
""It really reduces our options if there's someone that needs a different formulation than what would be available in the generic,"" she said.
According to Van Orman, UHS responded to the higher prices by getting more information out about BadgerCare and generic options but saw a drop in birth control prescriptions after prices rose in 2007.
Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin, said there is no reason for the government to subsidize hormonal birth-control drugs, which she said are proven to be carcinogens and accelerate the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
""Our government should not be in the business of paying for and promoting unhealthy behavior,"" she said, adding that contraceptive drugs can act as abortifacients.
It is not possible to measure how the increased prices affected the number of unwanted pregnancies, according to NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin Executive Director Lisa Subeck. She said she is hopeful pharmaceutical companies will restore the discounts and NARAL is currently urging them to do so.
Roys said access to birth control is especially important to students.
""I think we just have to see family planning and contraception as part of overall preventative health care, particularly for young people who are in college who want to plan their futures and delay having a family,"" Roys said.
