Starting last Saturday, Princeton University now subsidizes oral contraceptive for its students in the face of the growing birth control pricing crisis. The university subsidy program allows students to purchase generic oral contraception for $6 a month, reports the Associated Press.
Birth control prices have skyrocketed, some up to $50/month, as a consequence of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. It included a little-noticed provision that prohibited the decades-old practice of pharmaceutical companies selling contraceptives to both college clinics and clinics serving low-income women at deeply discounted rates.
Corrective bills 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.