In 2007, many students saw the price of their birth control prescriptions multiply by 10 times overnight when the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 went into effect.
Due to an error, the act outlawed the discounts pharmaceutical companies could put on contraceptives given to campus health centers and family planning clinics.
However, President Obama is attempting to make family planning more accessible by reducing the costs of birth control. Obama signed legislation earlier in the month allowing student health centers and family planning clinics to once again offer discounts on contraceptives.
Obama's plan is a good step in removing the restrictions on limitations and women's health resulting from the elimination of discounts. Even with slightly cheaper generic options, UHS saw birth prescriptions drop as a result of the price hikes generated by the DFA.
Family planning is an important aspect of a large number of college-aged women's lives, and birth control has been shown to have positive regulatory effects for women who are not sexually active as well. As such, hormonal contraceptives have played a major role in women's health. With the price increases of birth control, however, that aspect of women's health was blocked off from those unable to pay an extra $600 dollars a year. This is especially significant for students with small incomes and educational expenses.
Obama's actions will hopefully pave the way for ensuring equal access to reproductive health for people from all backgrounds, as well as decrease the number of unplanned pregnancies. Indeed, the legislation is long overdue, especially when one considers the fact that the discounts were originally removed by a technical mistake.
With birth control potentially becoming more affordable, female students will be able to make the choice of whether or not to use it based on their own private persuasions rather than economic considerations.
