Cyndi Loza

Last spring, 20-year-old pre-med student Elizabeth Harris had only Costa Rica on her mind. She was hoping to wine and dine there while taking a few biology courses. But the Waukegan native and University of Illinois at Chicago junior had to skip her trip.

Having gone off birth control, Harris found she was pregnant. She said she quit when the cost of her prescription at the UIC clinic more than doubled.

“[The price] steered me away,” said Harris. “I don’t blame them [UIC], but I might not be in the situation I am in now.”

Health officials fear more students will stop using birth control when they return to school this fall and find skyrocketing costs at campus clinics.

Price jumps from $15 to $35

Cost hikes across the country are a result of new federal regulations that removed incentives for drug makers to provide birth control at low cost to colleges. Harris encountered the increases when she wanted to continue with the NuvaRing, a monthly vaginal contraceptive, through UIC. She was shocked to find the new cost was $35, up from $15.

Other schools cut some birth-control options altogether. Northeastern Illinois University spokeswoman Carolyn Bonner said that, as of January, the school no longer provided contraceptives such as Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo for $5, the NuvaRing for $3 or the patch for $30. The school now dispenses generic birth control pills for $12 a month instead.

Some health officials fear students will be forced to rely on condoms, which may not be as effective. “When it’s not planned sex, something like a condom may not be used,” said Dr. Nandini Khatkhate, UIC medical director at Family Medicine Center.

Harris would agree with the statement. She said that even though UIC provides free condoms she would only use them “once in a while.” Other times she and her partner were feeling spontaneous and “it just happened,” she explained.

Denise Watkins, a nurse practitioner at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said she recommends using both hormonal contraceptives and male or female condoms. The condoms add protection from sexually transmitted diseases, she said.

Low-income students hit hard

The price increase in hormonal birth control can be traced to the Deficit Reduction Act signed by President Bush last year, aimed at reducing federal spending by $39 billion. The legislation made it more costly for drug makers to offer low-cost birth control to college clinics. Then the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued regulations that dropped college clinics from a list of agencies to which drug companies could sell discounted drugs.

Harris, coming from a low-income home, said she cannot afford to pay so much more for birth control.

She’s not alone. UIC senior Omotayo Asunmo, 21, said she stopped using the pill regularly after the increase.

Asunmo thinks students will probably find clinics other than university ones or use their parents’ insurance.

Though it may be economically difficult, other students wouldn’t dream of going off their contraceptives. University of Chicago graduate student Rachel Watson, 31, said she would pay even if her pill went up to $50 a cycle.