Omnibus Bill’s Provision to Correct Birth Control Prices

Relief is finally in sight for college women who were forced to go off birth control or endure exponentially higher prices for contraception after the Deficit Reduction Act was passed in 2005. The Act tightened regulations on eligibility for low-price drugs, which had the effect of cutting off college and university health centers from providing low cost birth control to their students.

The 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, however, has a provision called the “affordable birth control fix,” which will correct problems with access and affordability of birth control that was damaged in the Deficit Reduction Act. RH Reality Check blogged about it here, describing one woman’s experience dealing with repercussions of the raised prices in 2005. This provision in the omnibus bill has the potential to correct a big mistake that left millions of women without valuable resources that allowed them to control their own reproductive health.