Saturday, November 10, 2007

BC for All!

If you're in NYC this Monday, November 12th, be sure to make it over to Washington Square Park for the Rally for Affordable Birth Control from 4:45-6pm! I know some of you are down there so screw work, head on over, and let us know how it goes. More info:
Birth control costs have risen dramatically (up to 10 times!) since the Deficit Reduction Act took effect this year, leaving students and low-income women out in the cold. The act effectively ended the discounted rates that college health centers and safety-net providers like Planned Parenthood had available to them to provide wide access to birth control. As a result, affordable birth control has become out of reach for many college women. For example, the cost of a pack of birth control on some campuses has risen from $5 to nearly $50 a month!

Featuring Special Guest Speakers, U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Meena Shah from NYU Voices for Choice, and others! Join NYU: Voices for Choice, NOW-NYU,
and NYU Law Students for Reproductive Justice in sending Congress a message to restore affordable access! Meet at Washington Square Park.
The only piece that I'm confused about is whether it is only college women who are affected or if it is all women who get their birth control from Planned Parenthood? I would love to research this right now but am still sick (the news of the month really) and must get to sleep. Feel free to post a comment if you get any info on this.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the shout-out. The rally went really well and we had a great turn-out.

Planned Parenthood NYC can still buy birth control from pharmaceutical companies at discounted rates because of the type of funding it receives (Title X).

University Health Centers (not eligible for title X funding) and safety net providers like Planned Parenthood that don't receive this type of funding are affected because of a provision in the DRA.