Author: Rachel McCarthy-Moya
The staff at Emmons recently sent out a mass email to the women at Oxy letting us know that they still have $15 birth control pills in stock. However, once this stock runs out, those same pills will cost $35. Medicaid rebate laws no longer provide incentives for drug companies to offer discounts to college students, as reported in the April 11th issue of the Weekly. Many students are both sexually active and lack disposable income. Some women will rely on cheaper, less effective methods of birth control, which can have fertile consequences. For some, oral contraceptives may have already been a necessary, but difficult expense. More than doubling the cost will not be affordable to all students. Some are not as privileged as others and it’s not fair to assume that everyone can pay over twice as much for an already expensive contraceptive.
As a society, we can’t move forward unless we take care of everyone. For many of us at Oxy, a $20/month increase seems like a small amount. However, it’s narrow-minded to think that everyone can afford this escalation in price as easily. Are we forgetting the concept of the “starving student”? Not everyone has parents who can easily justify this extra cost. Likewise, some women may feel uncomfortable talking to their parents about supplementing costs for birth control.
Are our reproductive rights gradually being taken away? As college-aged women, we take our reproductive rights for granted because we’ve known nothing else. We have always known a system that offers birth control and the right to choose. However, this does not mean that such a system will always be in place, especially with the challenges to reproductive rights that have emerged within the Bush administration.
I understand that there are people who don’t support birth control, but we should all agree that more unwanted and unplanned pregnancies are not the way to go. Those who support abstinence because of a religious viewpoint should remember that this issue is about women’s health, not religion. We should focus on the scary fact that our rights are being stripped away instead of arguing over birth control and its spiritual ramifications.
It’s a slippery slope that we’re going down when a woman can’t afford birth control. Unwanted and unplanned pregnancies are sure to ensue, which will cause more abortions. The simple fact is that people are not going to stop having sex. And when women can no longer afford birth control and start relying on other, less effective forms, more women will get pregnant. Those women are not always going to decide to go through with the pregnancy.
I’m not trying to be crude here, but spending $500 on an abortion is much less expensive than eighteen years plus of shelter, clothing, food and tuition, especially for those women who cannot afford the new cost of oral contraceptives in the first place. Not to mention the emotional and psychological costs of dropping out of school or delaying school for unwanted pregnancies (which is not meant to downplay the emotional and psychological costs of an abortion). Some women are going to weigh their options, their income and their education and choose not to continue the pregnancy. Perhaps a partial solution to this problem is to increase the male level of responsibility in preventing pregnancy. Oxy men should help their sexual partners cover this unfair increase in cost. Preventing pregnancy needs to be the responsibility of both partners.
Congress really isn’t doing its job if it allows such legislation as the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 to pass. Part of the act includes increasing benefits for students, those in the “greatest need” by keeping more money in the hands of taxpayers. How exactly is making birth control more expensive for both of these groups increasing their benefits? I pose this question to Congress. Please don’t let women’s reproductive rights fall to the wayside.
Rachel is a junior CTSJ major and staff writer for the Weekly. She can be reached at rmccarthy@oxy.edu
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
