Birth Control Access Campaign

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STEPS TO INCREASE BIRTH CONTROL ACCESS

MAKE LOW COST CONTRACEPTION AVAILABLE AT COLLEGE HEALTH CENTERS

For almost 20 years, pharmaceutical companies were able to offer a steep discount on prescription drugs, including birth control pills, to college health centers and clinics serving lowincome women. This allowed these clinics and health centers to pass those savings onto patients. In 2005, the Federal Deficit Reduction Act passed without the provision specifying this discount, leading to a dramatic increase in the price of birth control on college campuses. Thankfully, in 2009 the discount program was reinstated by Congress. Make sure your campus restores affordable birth control. Here’s how:

STEP 1: Visit your health center and confirm that it distributes birth control. If it does, find out what kind it offers and how much is charged for each type (including pills, the hormone shot, the ring, and other options).

STEP 2: If your center does not offer low-cost birth control, set up a meeting with the health center director. Ask if they are aware of the passing of the 2009 Omnibus bill, which allows college health centers and clinics serving low income people to purchase and sell prescription drugs at a low rate. Offer to work with the center to improve prices.

STEP 3: If you meet resistance, strategize. Call your Choices National Campus Organizer at 703-522-2214 (East Coast) or 310-556-2500 (West Coast), or email campusteam@feminist.org to share experiences and learn about what is going on at other colleges. The Feminist Majority Foundation is working with the American College Health Association and is aware of what is happening nationwide. Your story is important and you are part of a national movement to increase birth control access!

STEP 4: Organize students on your campus to demonstrate the need for low-cost birth control: hold a teachin on contraception and family planning, circulate petitions among students and faculty, and meet with administrators.

INCREASE FEDERAL FAMILY PLANNING FUNDING

Some 8.5 million women in the United States do not have access to affordable birth control and publicly funded family planning. One in four women has limited or no health insurance. Low income women are more than four times more likely than affluent women to have an unintended pregnancy.

Most experts say that the federal government should be spending $2 billion dollars annually on the Title X grant program (currently receiving only $317.4 million) in order to fully meet the public demand for necessary family planning services. While that may sound like a lot, for every $1 spent on family planning services, the government saves $4.02 in Medicaid expenditures. Organize your campus to increase federal family planning funding.

STEP 1: Educate your campus. Host a panel or teach-in to spread the word about the need for increased family planning funding. Use a poster campaign to teach students about the lack of birth control access for many women in the United States.

STEP 2: Circulate the Feminist Majority Foundation’s petition to increase federal family planning funding. Send it to the Feminist Majority Foundation so we can present it to key decisionmakers.