Alternative forms of birth control available to students

By Ramsey Cox

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.

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Ramsey Cox

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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

Comments

kateku (anonymous) says...

I love that catholics who think birth control is wrong are having pre-marital sex which is also against catholic doctrine.

July 14, 2008 at 10:36 a.m. ( | suggest removal )

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