AU's Student Health Center may not receive the same cheaper birth control options - the result of a new national spending bill - as other university health centers.
President Obama signed the bill March 11 that would allow pharmaceutical companies to resume selling discount contraceptives to college health clinics.
The spending bill was partly a response to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which ceased the policy of giving financial incentives to pharmaceutical companies to supply college health clinics with birth control and other contraceptives, according to TIME magazine.
Jason D. Walker-Crawford, the pharmacy manager at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that the bill is great news and will allow university pharmacies to once again work with pharmaceutical companies to distribute affordable birth control.
The Student Health Center is constantly trying to find the most affordable birth control available, said Center Director Dan Bruey.
"Hopefully the new bills will result in additional savings for students," he said.
The average birth control fees for students going to the health center are already cheaper than many schools. The regular fee for birth control pills at AU for students is $15 - $20 for an emergency contraceptive. The health center provides condoms for free, according to Bruey.
By contrast, the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics saw a drastic rise in their contraceptive prices after the Deficit Reduction Act came into effect, with the average birth control pill rising in price from $8 to $42 per month. Desogen, one birth control pill type, rose from $8.50 per month to $55.
Although the University of Wisconsin's clinic eventually found a generic alternative, they were unable to do the same for other contraceptives, such as the vaginal device, NuvaRing, which rose from about $15 to $60 per month at the same time.
At Brunswick, Maine-based Bowdoin College, the health clinic has responded to the Deficit Reduction Act by stopping their distribution of birth control altogether, according to TIME.
Before the act came into effect, all birth control was provided free of charge. Now only Plan B - colloquially known as the Morning After Pill - and condoms are provided for free.
If students at Bowdoin were to get a prescription birth control such as NuvaRing, the health clinic would provide them with a prescription and direct them to the nearest pharmacy where they have to pay the full cost themselves, TIME reported.
Some female AU students said they do not note expense as a concern when deciding where to buy birth control and instead cited other reasons for not using the health center as a source for birth control.
Mona Abutaleb, a sophomore in the School of International Service, said she would feel uncomfortable going to the Student Health Center.
"I would rather just go to my gynecologist," she said.
Kate Conway, a sophomore in SIS, said she trusts her doctor more.
"Even if it was cheaper, I still wouldn't go to the health center," she said.
According to Bruey, it would be no more difficult to go to the Student Health Center than to get birth control from a doctor.
"If you are already on a prescription and you run out, it's fairly simple to get it renewed at the Health Center," he said.
A 2006 American College Health Association survey found that 39 percent of undergraduate women respondents said they use oral contraceptives.
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