In light of Columbia University’s recent triumph in the battle against rising birth control costs, Stanford Students for Choice are leading campus efforts to follow suit. Co-Presidents Kate Benham ‘09 and Meryl Holt ‘09 held an informational session Friday afternoon to discuss how recent legislation is affecting Stanford students.

The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 was implemented in 2007 with the intention of reducing student loan costs. As a result, pharmaceutical companies lost government subsidies that enabled them to provide drugs to low-income and college health clinics at a discounted rate.

“We started working on this issue because we realized that this was happening and that it was going to affect college students everywhere,” Benham said. “About 39 percent of college students across the country use birth control pills as their primary contraceptive method.”

On Tuesday of last week, Columbia’s Health Services announced that it would reduce the price of birth control, taking the NuvaRing down from $40 to $20 and generic brands down to $5.

Stanford’s Vaden Health Center, in anticipation of the DRA, started stockpiling “clinic packs” of oral contraceptives when the act was announced. Vaden expects prices to increase when the supply of these reduced-price packs runs out.

“It was a really great deal,” Benham said of the reduced-price birth control, which will continue to be offered at Vaden until the stock has been depleted. “Everyone was eligible regardless of their insurance status by just being a Stanford student.”

Students with Cardinal Care will not be affected by the DRA. For students without Cardinal Care, Vaden currently charges a flat fee of $10 for generic brands, which students pay each month out of pocket. In the near future, the costs will vary due to individual insurance plans and the type of pill.

“It could be anywhere from $25 to as much as $65 per pack,” Benham said. “That’s really prohibitive for most people. Once [the clinic packs] start running out, I think people are really going to start feeling this crunch.”

Holt agreed.

“I find it really ironic because now we’re seeing a situation where a lot of women are having to choose between buying birth control — and having safe sex — and buying school books,” Holt said. “And actually, all of the official explanations say it was a mistake and they didn’t mean for the DRA to increase the price of these drugs.”

Benham and Holt have created a petition that has been circulated around the student body, as well as a preliminary survey for Stanford women.

“There are some additional issues that come along with this,” Holt said. “At the moment, you can still buy generics for your original co-pay, but the generic is not a perfect substitute for what you were taking before. A lot of women experience side effects. Also, there’s been a noted increase in the use of Plan B emergency contraception since this bill was enacted.”

Benham, trained as a Sexual Health Peer Resource Center counselor, stated that Plan B was not a feasible substitute for regular birth control.

“It’s safe to take Plan B, but it’s not a viable alternative,” she said. “It causes unpleasant side effects for many women, and as it’s relatively new, long-term effects haven’t been widely studied.”

Some college campuses have already replaced their stock of birth control with a stock of Plan B. Benham and Holt hope to prevent this from happening at Stanford by presenting their petition to the administration.

“We’re going to make a presentation to the ASSU in the next couple of weeks,” Benham said. “Hopefully with their collaboration, the petition and the survey results, we’ll take all of this to the Vice Provost and the Dean of Students and ask them if they can subsidize this gap.”