(Mar.
2, 2009) College-age women in the western Chicago suburbs and other areas around
the country are seeing skyrocketing prices in birth control on their campuses,
due to a change in federal law. The costs of the birth control pill jumped from around $12 to $50, and the cost of the NuvaRing has jumped from about $18 to $36, according to a recent report in the New York Times. A recent federal law now prevents some clinics from offering reduced prices. It is due to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, in which President George Bush removed college health centers and some other clinics serving the poor from group discount drug programs. Some clinics stocked up on birth control pills for a while and were able to offer them at the lower prices, but that has changed.
Jenny Wawrose, a college sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin, complains that her monthly birth control pills have gone up from $20 - $30 per month to $65. "I don't know, I don't think I can keep taking it, or this kind that much longer because it's $700 a year, which is absurd," Wawrose said, as reported in MyFoxAustin.com.
Birth control options, on the other hand, include natural fertility awareness, also called natural fertility regulation, and are very low in cost and safe since they involve no drugs or devices. One natural method is called the Ovulation Method, which is based on scientific research and helps women know when they are fertile (able to conceive a baby) and when they aren't. Many women don't realize they are fertile for only a few days a month.
Women interested in traditional or alternative birth control options should contact WomanCare Services in Berwyn at 708-795-6000.