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!

Birth control access in crisis

FDA approves limited over-the-counter status for Emergency Contraception

8/24/06--After three years, FDA officials decided they could ignore scientific evidence about the safety and efficacy of–and public outcry about the need for–Emergency Contraception no longer. At least, as far as it applies to women 18 and over. Even though there is no evidence that easy access to Emergency Contraception makes people behave in a more promiscuous or risky manner, women under 18 will still need to get a prescription before they can obtain Emergency Contraception.

Read more from Planned Parenthood of Indiana. Planned Parenthood Advocates will keep working for increased awareness and access to Emergency Contraception–and other birth control options–for all women.

Planned Parenthood Advocates calls for increased access to Emergency Contraception

Fed up with FDA delays on over-the-counter status for Emergency Contraception? The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is—they've recently chastised the FDA and stepped up their efforts to increase access to Emergency Contraception. Wish there was something we could do to make Emergency Contraception more readily available to women?

There is! Nine states across the country have enacted Pharmacy Access protocols, which allow pharmacists—in collaboration with a doctor, nurse practitioner, or the state board of pharmacy—to dispense Emergency Contraception to women without a prescription.

The sooner you take Emergency Contraception after unprotected intercourse, the better your chances of preventing pregnancy are. If a woman could pick it up at her local 24-hour pharmacy when she needs it—say, 3 am on a Saturday—rather than waiting until Monday for her doctor's office to open—her chances of facing an unintended pregnancy are greatly reduced.

Shouldn't the women of Indiana have every opportunity to prevent unintended pregnancy? We think so. You can help—ask your legislator to sponsor a bill creating pharmacy access for Emergency Contraception!

What is Emergency Contraception?
Emergency Contraception is hormonal birth control, the same medicine that is in regular birth control pills, patch, and the ring. Emergency Contraception works to prevent pregnancy by preventing ovulation and fertilization, the same as other hormonal birth control methods do. It has no effect on an established pregnancy.

So what's the difference? Emergency Contraception is a special dosage that can prevent pregnancy even after unprotected sex. If your regular method of birth control fails, you didn't use one, or you were having sex when you didn't plan or want to, Emergency Contraception offers you a second chance to prevent pregnancy.

Emergency Contraception can prevent a pregancy if taken up to 120 hours after unprotected sex, but the sooner it's taken, the more likely it is to work. That's why quick and easy access is so important!

What about over-the-counter status?
Currently, a woman must have a prescription to get Emergency Contraception; unfortunately, unprotected sex doesn't always happen conveniently during office hours. If a woman needs Emergency Contraception in the middle of the night, or on a weekend, she now has to wait for her doctor's office to open, and then wait for an appointment before she can get a prescription—sometimes bumping her right out of the 120-hour window in which Emergency Contraception is effective.

The timing of Emergency Contraception is critical. Given the limits on doctors' and health center hours, in comparison to the many pharmacies which are now open 24/7 even on holidays, wouldn't it be better if a woman could get Emergency Contraception without a doctor's prescription?

Barr Pharmecuticals, the makers of Emergency Contraception, have been working with the FDA for three years now, attempting to obtain over-the-counter status for Emergency Contraception. Over-the-counter status means a woman could buy Emergency Contraception without a prescription, the same as condoms, cold remedies, and other common medicines.

• Numerous clinical trials and studies prove that Emergency Contraception is safe, effective, and simple to use.
• The expert FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee recommended Emergency Contraception for over-the-counter status. Then-FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford himself stated in August 2005 that the scientific data proves that Emergency Contraception meets FDA criteria for over-the-counter availability.
• Studies also show that easy access to Emergency Contraception does not make women—teens or adults—more promiscuous or more likely to engage in risky behavior.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that Emergency Contraception meets all FDA requirements for over-the-counter status, the politically-appointed leaders of the FDA keep stalling a decision. Anti-choice groups have been pressuring the administration not to change the prescription status for Emergency Contraception. It's time to speak up to protect access to birth control, including Emergency Contraception.

What is pharmacy access?
Until the FDA approves over-the-counter status for Emergency Contraception, pharmacy access is the next best thing. Nine states (AK, CA, HI, ME, MA, NH, NM, VT, WA) have already enacted state laws permitting pharmacy access protocols; in July 2006, Vermont will join them.

Protocols vary from state to state, but basically, pharmacy access means that pharmacists are allowed to partner with a doctor, nurse practitioner, or the state board of pharmacy; this partnership authorizes the pharmacist to provide a woman with Emergency Contraception and the information she needs to prevent a pregnancy.

Pharmacy access is a voluntary program; pharmacists are not required to participate. In the eight states listed above, approximately 4786 pharmacists provide direct access to Emergency Contraception in roughly 1964 pharmacies. Find more on Pharmacy access:

• Pharmacy Access Partnership
• Go2EC.org
• Emergency Contraception Pharmacy Program

Indiana recently ranked 49th in a national survey of access to birth control. Pharmacy access to Emergency Contraception could be the first step in reversing that ranking. Contact your legislator today!