Take Action: Save Birth Control Now!

Save Birth Control Now!

Students and low-income women need your help
Tell Congress: “Save birth control now!”

What if Congress passed a law that made the price of your groceries go up by 900 percent? There would be an instant uproar, and you can bet the problem would be fixed, pronto.

So why is Congress dragging their feet when a recent law has made the price of birth control skyrocket to unaffordable prices for millions of women? For the college students, that’s no small matter.

Today Planned Parenthood is asking college and university students all over Pennsylvania to demand that Congress take action, and NOW. Fill out the form to the right to ask Senators Specter and Casey to be co-sponsors of the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act. We need their leadership!

Tell me more.

The message below will be sent on your behalf:

Subject:

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

(Edit Letter Below)

As a leading proponent of protecting access to family planning services, I strongly urge you to co-sponsor the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act. I am young woman who has first-hand knowledge of the need to ensure access to affordable birth control. Your support is crucial to fixing this problem, and I urge you to sign on.

For 20 years, drug companies have made it possible for college health clinics and safety-net providers to purchase birth control at low prices in order to pass along the savings to the college students and low-income women who rely on them.

However, this fall, college women returned to campus to discover that the birth control that previously cost them $5-10 for a monthly supply now cost $40-50 per pack, making it far more difficult to afford.  Due to a provision included in the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA), as of January 1, 2007, every college and university health center was unintentionally cut off from accessing low-cost birth control and passing on the low price to college women.  Skyrocketing prices are putting birth control out of reach for the college students in need of family planning services to help them prevent unintended pregnancy.

That is why I am urging you to co-sponsor the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act, legislation that would make a technical fix to the DRA and university clinics' ability to access low-cost contraceptives.  This legislation would not cost either the federal government or state Medicaid agencies.  It would merely allow drug manufacturers to offer deeply discounted prices to safety net health care providers.

As your constituent and a young woman with first-hand knowledge of the need to ensure access to affordable birth control, I urge you to take a leadership role and co-sponsor this bipartisan legislation.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]


	Senator Arlen Specter (if you live in Pennsylvania) Senator Bob Casey (if you live in Pennsylvania) Complete the following to send this message and sign-up to receive periodic updates. If you have participated before, just type in your email address and set your prefix, then submit the form. Email:* Prefix:* First Name:* Last Name:* Address Line 1:* Address Line 2: City:* State:* ZIP:* Phone Number: * Required Field