Indiana college students call for Affordable Birth Control

April 3, 2008

Student groups at three Indiana campuses worked with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana during March to promote the Affordable Birth Control (ABC) campaign. Young activists at Butler, IUPUI and IU Bloomington gathered 500signatures on petitions calling to restore the price of birth control to an affordable level.

Due to a provision included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2006 (DRA), millions of college and low-income women made the surprising discovery last fall that the price of their monthly birth control pills had shot up from $5-10 to almost $50 per month. This glitch in the system could be fixed at no cost to tax payers through legislation that is ready to be heard in Congress—the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act. Read more about the recent history of this birth control crisis.

Thanks to the aid of numerous Indiana college groups, multiple events were held throughout the month of March to bring the issue to the forefront of campus discussions. Planned Parenthood Peer Educators also pitched in. In all, 500 petition signatures were gathered and 90 voters registered.

At Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Master of Social Work students held two tabling events to register voters and gain student support for Affordable Birth Control.

Members of Demia, a feminist leadership group at Butler University, educated their fellow students about birth control prices at their annual Women's Fest.

At Indiana University (IU) in Bloomington, students from several organizations including College Democrats, Feminist Law Forum, Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, Law Students for Reproductive Justice and Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom came together to gather signatures and cultivate support for Affordable Birth Control.

Today, the IU students and Planned Parenthood Advocates staff brought the signed Bloomington petitions to the local office of Congressman Baron Hill, who is a member of The Energy and Commerce Congressional Committee. This committee will potentially decide the fate of the Prevention Through Affordable Access legislation, so it was especially important to let Congressman Hill and his staff know that his constituents are feeling the effects of rising birth control prices and need his help to fix the problem.

When the group met with Congressman Hill's staff, they also presented a letter from the executive director of the IU Health Center, Dr. Hugh Jessop. Dr. Jessop's letter to Congressman Hill noted that distribution of birth control at the IU health center had dropped by 40% since the prices rose, proving how much this measure affects IU students who cannot afford to pay the increased costs of birth control. How many of these students might now get pregnant and possibly have to put their education on hold?

Planned Parenthood Advocates will continue working for Affordable Birth Control until the problem is solved. Thanks to everyone who carried or signed a petition! If you are interested in continuing the fight, sign the petition or contact your local congressional representative. You can also keep the issue in the public eye by writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Keep at it until everyone can afford her birth control!