Monday, July 14, 2008
Watkins Health Center provides contraceptive and birth control drugs for students, ranging in costs from 50 cents to $55, including Plan B.
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) recently voted against a committee bill because of language that funded Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers to sell reduced-price drugs on university and college campuses. The bill passed the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Committee anyway.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION
breakbox
Watkins Health Center offers several forms of contraceptives at the pharmacy. Here are some popular types and prices before insurance: Emergency Contraceptive (Plan B or the morning after pill) – $24 Ortho Tri-cyclen – $15 Ortho Tri-cyclen Lo – $50 Yazmin – $45 Lifestyle condoms – three for 50 cents
“I voted against committee passage of the Labor-Education-HHS appropriations bill due to the anti-life provisions within the bill,” Brownback said. “Provisions in the bill will make it easier to purchase and distribute harmful drugs like Plan B.”
Plan B is an emergency contraceptive also known as the morning after pill. Despite the nickname, the pill does not have to be taken the morning after. It can be taken within five days of unprotected sex.
Sara Weber, Lawrence graduate student, has not used the morning after pill, but has used other similar forms of contraceptive like the birth control pill and condoms.
“I used to be on the pill but now my husband and I use condoms because we want to have a child sometime in the next year,” Weber said. “I’d rather use birth control than not. Statistically speaking, contraceptives like condoms and the birth control pill are more effective than checking your hormone levels.”
Family planning is a natural form of birth control that some students use. Fertility has a direct effect on hormone levels, which can be checked by taking a woman’s temperature. By checking hormone levels, women can determine if they are more or less fertile each day and plan to only have sex on days they are less fertile.
Katy Cortese, Des Moines, Iowa senior, charts her cycle and plans to use the natural family planning method after she gets married in October. She said she has negative feelings about other forms of birth control because of her Catholic faith and because she sees a natural beauty in fertility.
“The birth control pill and the morning after pill aren’t different for me,” Cortese said. “I don’t like Plan B because life begins at conception and that pill aborts human life.”
According to the Planned Parenthood, it is a common misconception that the morning after pill destroys a fetus, but it is considered a preventative form of birth control. The Planned Parenthood said preventative forms of birth control are not the same as abortion because they prevent pregnancy from ever occurring.
The hormones in the morning after pill are the same hormones found in the birth control pill. Those hormones stop ovulation and also thicken a woman’s cervical mucus, which blocks sperm from joining with an egg.
Other forms of common birth control include withdrawal (pulling out), which is 73 to 96 percent effective, a birth control shot that lasts three months, which is 97 to 99 percent effective, or a diaphragm, which is 84 to 94 percent effective. Condoms are nearly 100 percent effective, the birth control pill is 92 to 99 percent effective and emergency contraceptive is 75 to 89 percent effective if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.
- Edited by Rebekah Scaperlanda
Protect yourself
Before you take the plunge into being sexually active, it’s important to ...
Beyond the pill
Alternatives to the most popular form of birth control about and better ...
Plan B use increases on campus
Last year, 763 Plan B pills were bought through the Watkins pharmacy.
Study shows many women dissatisfied with birth ...
The pill top contraceptive choice despite the fact many women are frustrated ...
Plan B One Step offers emergency option
The emergency contraception allows women to avoid pregnancy if taken within 72 ...
America’s reluctance to green light pill indicates ...
Birth Control Pills
A Risk Worth Taking?
Over-the-counter "morning after pill" could decrease sexual ...
Letter to the Editor: Pills form of ...
Birth control pills may prevent unwanted pregnancies, but not unnecessary abortions because ...
Contraception methods vary
A breakdown of contraception methods and their effectiveness.
Pill poppin' perils
The pill that allows you sexual freedom actually represses your desire for ...
Birth control prices could decrease
A new law opens up the possibility for lower prices on birth ...
Oberthaler: Why male birth control may not ...
Oral contraceptive prices on the rise
Changes in federal laws have made it hard for colleges to offer ...
Bregman: Serious risks come with birth control ...
More than 1,500 people have brought lawsuits against Ortho Evra because of ...
Planned Parenthood marks emergency contraception's over-the-counter status
On Wednesday women 18 and older could get a dose of Plan ...
Balancing the burden of birth control
A new contraceptive pill could soon give men the opportunity to take ...
Letter: Should we celebrate more Plan B ...
Letter: Oral contraceptives harmful to women
Oral contraceptives may be dangerous.
Lawsuit attacks birth control patch
Last week, a lawuit was filed in San Francisco blaming the Ortho ...
Letter: Sexual conservatives cannot have their cake ...
Letter was offensive.
Letter: Why men should take birth control
Condoms: Unwrapped
How students really feel about rubbers
Letter: Letter was misleading — the pill ...
Commission on the Status of Women responds to recent letter to the ...
Letter: Plan B ends embryo's life
Birth control prices get knocked up
After ending contracts with its pharmaceutical manufacturers, student health centers nationwide will ...
Kansas in Heat: Sex during menstruation
Mike Anderson, Dellwood, Minn. graduate student, and Michelle MacBain, Kansas City, Kan., ...
Emergency contraception easier to get
Plan B, an emergency contraception pill, will be available to the public ...
Kansas drafts new anti-abortion laws
State legislature battles over abortion laws could spill into areas of family ...
University gets $8 million to find male ...
Abortion unalienable right
Stewart: Top 9 reasons I won’t take ...
Letter to the Editor: Abortion a necessary ...
One mistake, her fault or not, should not condemn a woman for ...
Title X funding up in the air
A proposed bill would cut $317 million in reproductive health care and ...
Choice of a Lifetime
Ryan: Culture obscures women’s sexuality
Why do erectile dysfunction commercials consist entirely of thinly veiled sexual innuendos, ...
Curing the common zit
The secret to greak skin is not necessarily in how often you ...
Cosby: The embarrassing state of Kansas
Laws limiting access to abortion providers aren't right, or helpful.
Strong-handed players
The wind usually blows into left field at Hoglund Ballpark, giving right-handed ...
Cosby: Congress overreacting by defunding Planned Parenthood
Defunding Planned Parenthood would jeopardize vital services needed for the reproductive and ...
Kansas Jayhawk fans hold aloft a reproduction of ...
2 comments
Erin Saupe, a Ph.D. student from St. Cloud, ...
1 comment
0 comments
Armed robbers continue to threaten.
3 comments
Lecture from Greg Mortenson, co-author of New York ...
0 comments
KUnited presidential candidate Libby Johnson and vice presidential ...
1 comment
Comments
Alternative forms of birth control available to students
I love that catholics who think birth control is wrong are having pre-marital sex which is also against catholic doctrine.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID