DES MOINES, Iowa
More than 400 Iowa college students have signed a petition protesting federal legislation that has made getting birth control more expensive.
The 2005 Deficit Reduction Act went into effect in January and changes the way manufacturers calculate Medicaid-related rebates to states, making it more costly for them to offer discounts to colleges.
The higher prices are for college women who don’t have insurance or don’t want to use their parents’ insurance because they don’t want their parents to know. Prices for birth control products, such as Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, have increased from $15 a pack to $53 a pack at student health centers at Iowa’s three public universities. The petition also includes students from some of Iowa’s private universities.
“We think affordable birth control is something we can all agree on,” said Dana Gustafson, a junior at Drake University and a member of an abortion-rights group that has lobbied for the petition drive.
The petition will be presented to Sen. Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley next month, said Julie Stauch, vice president of governmental affairs at Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa.
The petition was part of a nationwide effort coordinated by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where petitions on the cost of birth control are being drafted and signed at campuses across the country.
