Give Me Birth Control, or Give Me Death

A draft version of the financial bailout bill in Congress would have lowered the cost of birth control.

The Women's eNews (citing an original report in the Congressional Quarterly) said the bailout would have lowered the cost of the birth control pill by eliminating a 2005 act that ended drug-company incentives to keep the cost of birth control down. One of the main places this had an effect on was college campuses, which had long boasted dirt cheap birth control.

I remember all too well when the cost of the pill started to skyrocket, because I edited a story about it for the student newspaper. In fact, I still can't believe we watched that happen without a bigger fight. The anger is surfacing again.

Well, I was all set to give you my financial analysis, and then this loose tie of the bailout to birth control set me off in a new direction. I say "loose tie," but I take that back, as it is no loose tie at all. Economics and birth control are inextricably linked, and the fact that birth control is so expensive in this country is a telling example of the misplaced priorities that have blown up in America's face.

So forget talking about the financial bailout right now. I wish we had the luxury of giving that $700 billion to the millions of uninsured -- who are disproportionately women -- who can't afford birth control -- and so continues the cycle of inequality and poverty.