Oh For Crying Out Loud

Sorry. While you have your fingers warmed up from the last set of emails and phone calls. Send an Email to keep birth control affordable.

I just got the following email from Planned Parenthood:

Dear Rowan,
What if Congress passed a law that made the price of your groceries go up by 900 percent? There would be an instant uproar... Rioting in the streets...

... And you can bet the problem would be fixed, pronto.

So why is Congress dragging their feet when one of their recent laws just made the price of birth control skyrocket to an unaffordable level for millions of women?

There is no excuse for this delay. Millions of women need our help today. Please write to Congress today to demand that they fix their mistake NOW.

Here's the whole story: Last year's Congress made a technical error writing a new law, and the cost of birth control in many clinics is rising to almost 900 percent what it was just months ago. Women who were paying $5 to $10 per month are now paying $40 to $50 for birth control. For the college students and low-income women who will be affected by this cost hike, that's no small matter.

This delay adds insult to injury in a year when Planned Parenthood and the women we serve have endured multiple attacks on access to birth control. First the fight to open our Aurora, Illinois, health center; then the appointment of radically anti-birth control Susan Orr to lead the U.S. family planning program; then the attempt by anti-choice radicals to block much-needed federal funding for our health centers. It's unfair and shocking that Congress is becoming part of this anti-birth control trend. But hopeless? Not if Planned Parenthood has anything to say about it...

Here's what we're doing:

* First of all, here at Planned Parenthood, we are making every effort to keep offering birth control pills at the old (discounted) price and, when possible, to make up the difference ourselves.
* Secondly, we are leading a massive effort to get Congress to restore this much-needed benefit to the Medicaid budget.

This is our plan, but the power of your voice today is what can make our efforts that much more effective. All it will take is for Congress to agree to pass the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act to immediately make birth control more accessible to millions of women who need it.

Please, write to your member of Congress today!

Thank you in advance for taking the time to help us make birth control available to ALL women who need it. Your actions aren't just sending a message to Congress -- they're sending a powerful message of support to every woman who is struggling to cover the cost of her birth control.

Sincerely,

Cecile Richards
President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Posted by rowan at November 13, 2007 8:30 PM | [eMail this article!] |