Free contraceptives a necessity for universities

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Ohio State students host a rally to support free contraceptives. They purchased $600 in Ramen to represent the amount spent annually per woman on contraceptives. Photo courtesy of thepulse-mag.org.

Health care providers always advise students to abstain from sex. However, we all know that advice isn’t usually heeded. Many women in college exercise their newfound independence from their parents and explore their sexuality. One of the most responsible steps a female college student can perform is to acquire and consistently use birth control.

Currently, UND offers free male condoms at the Student Health clinic. However, the purpose of student health services providing all the free condoms is not for the purpose of providing contraception, it is to prevent STDs.

UND’s student health services should offer free birth control options to female students as well. Presently, birth control is only prescribed if a student has the UND health care plan offered by student health services.

The cost of this plan is $1,212 per school year. This cost can either be paid at enrollment for fall semester or a payment plan of $737 in spring and $475 in summer. Some students simply can’t afford to purchase this plan and therefore go without health care services.

After completing a free well-woman exam at student health services, a female student should be able to receive a prescription for a contraceptive and have it filled by UND’s pharmacy free of charge.

There are numerous options of birth control available.

According to the American College Health Association in their 2013 report, birth control pills, the male condom and withdrawal are the most practiced forms of contraception among undergraduate college students.

Most females do not use birth control as perfectly prescribed. Therefore, the effectiveness is only 91 percent. According to the Guttmacher Institute for sexual and reproductive health, contraceptive implants such as Implanon or an IUD have a failure rate of less than 1 percent and are the most reliable forms of birth control.

Some argue the cost of free contraception would be unrealistic due to university budgetary constraints. Providing free birth control would require a student health services budget increase. However, wouldn’t the cost to UND be higher in both lost tuition and a decreased graduation rate due to unplanned pregnancies?

Others claim handing out free contraceptives would encourage students to behave more promiscuously. I would argue most female students who choose to be on birth control are responsible adults and don’t plan to be exceedingly promiscuous.

In 2005, the Deficit Reduction Act was enacted by the federal government. An unforeseen casualty of this Act was that drug providers were no longer required — or able — to sell their drugs to colleges at deep discounted prices. Prices for the most basic of birth control pills rose from an average of $3 to $10 a month to $30 to $50 per month.

Colleges have passed this price increase on to students, but most students are not able to cover this increase on a low-income budget.

This increase in contraceptive prices has encouraged students to use less reliable forms of contraceptive. In a 2007 New York Times article, a UND student voiced her opinion that this cost increase creates the reality, “… that women will stop taking it, and whether or not you can pay for it, that doesn’t mean that you’ll stop having sex.”

Universities have seen a dramatic climb in the use of the volatile morning after pill, and, on a smaller scale, an increase in unplanned pregnancies.

Planned Parenthood made the following announcement about birth control coverage saying, “For many women, especially college students, birth control is not only a health care issue, it’s a financial issue. Covering birth control with no co-pays means college students will not have to choose between paying for tuition and books, or for paying for basic health care like birth control.”

The matter of the availability of free birth control is not about university expenses and promiscuity, but it is about responsibility — both a female’s responsibility to herself and the university’s responsibility to support its female students.

Margaret Upton is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].