As the birth control pricing crisis continues, advocates for affordable contraceptives push for action on corrective legislation. Birth control that once cost $5 to $10 per month now sell for $40 to $50, reports the News and Observer. The increased prices have caused some of the 400 clinics effected by the crisis to stop stocking some contraceptives, and many report decreases in the amount of contraceptives sold, according to the Daily Women’s Health Policy Report.
Prices have risen due to a little-noticed provision of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA), which went into effect January 2007. The provision prevents college clinics and hundreds of clinics that serve women with low incomes from purchasing birth control from drug companies at an extremely discounted rate. Corrective measures have been introduced in both the House and the Senate.
The Feminist Majority Foundation Choices Campus Leadership program is mobilizing students across the country to restore affordable birth control as part of their Birth Control Access Campaign.
