October 16, 2007
Cost of birth control about to increase at Curry
At the Curry Health Center, the price of the oral contraceptives Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo and Cyclessa will jump from $20 per month to $50 per month, starting this January. Over half of Missoula women who are prescribed birth control at the health center are using Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo. This price increase will primarily affect young adults, who make up the majority of Missoula’s community. Furthermore, it’s no secret that college students are especially financially sensitive. This bill will essentially punish women for being sexually responsible. Additionally, many women take these medications for reasons other than contraception. Birth control is also used to treat patients with anemia, clear up severe acne problems, reduce cramps and regulate menstrual cycles. Regardless of your stance on abortion issues, supporting affordable pregnancy prevention methods, such as birth control, decreases the number of people that would have to decide whether or not to abort their unintended pregnancy.
Planned Parenthoods and college health clinics are no longer receiving the deep discounts on birth control that pharmaceutical companies have long offered them, and the price increases are regrettably being passed along to their patients. This price increase can be attributed to a bill that was passed to reduce the federal deficit, entitled “The Deficit Reduction Act.” Now you may be thinking, ‘Wait a second! Why is the price of birth control rising when we all know that the millions spent for Bush’s War on Terror is throwing the nation even further into deficit spending?!’ Unfortunately, reason seems to have little to do with it. You can, however, do something about it. UM Students for Choice are leading the following actions to fix this problem: They will be tabling in the UC this week to raise awareness on this issue, collecting signatures to petition for Congress to resolve the birth control pricing crisis and holding a press conference in front of Curry Health Center Wednesday, at 9:30 a.m.
I believe that keeping birth control affordable should be a high priority of Congress. I hope that after reading this you will help me urge our congressmen, Jon Tester and Max Baucus, to fix this problem so that campus health centers and family planning centers nationwide can continue to provide affordable services to their clients.
Stacy Gray
junior, broadcast journalism
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