When Ed Fulton began campaigning for vice presidency, he had an interesting platform – to lower the price of birth control on FAU campuses.
After last semester’s sudden jump in birth control prices at the FAU pharmacy on the Boca and Jupiter campuses, a female student came to Fulton last month and insisted on an explanation for the increase. Although Fulton wouldn’t reveal the name of the student, he said she was “visibly frantic and upset.” He took up her cause since, “It’s my job to be a student advocate, not a male student advocate,” Fulton said.
Fulton promised to investigate. After meeting with student health services, he discovered that birth control prices had risen by almost $30 per prescription since last year. The reason for the hike, however, was harder to decipher. It had to do with something called the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which actually didn’t go into effect until this past January.
The Reduction Act was initially passed in order to reduce the country’s federal deficit, though it also stopped what had been a common practice among birth control makers: offering universities cut-rate prices so they could build brand loyalty.
Since SG doesn’t help pay for birth control, and since it has no money to help defray the costs, Fulton can’t do much to lower prices himself. Thanks to the Feminist Student Union, a club on the Jupiter campus that advocates for social justice issues for women and other students, Fulton was able to launch a petition against the Reduction Act on both the Jupiter and Boca campuses.
“This issue is not just a feminist issue,” said senior Samantha Montgomery, a four-year member of the Feminist Student Union. “It affects everyone on campus, both women and men.”
Fulton also met with Planned Parenthood of South Florida, the regional non-profit organization that delivers sexual health care services.
“One of Planned Parenthood’s top goals is to ensure that women have access to affordable birth control,” said Katie Stephens, field organizer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Miami, Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast. “Increasing the price will severely limit women’s ability to prevent unintended pregnancy.”
Planned Parenthood has been lobbying nationally about the increased birth control prices, which affect them and FAU , as well as other universities across the country. With the organization’s help and donated supplies, Fulton and other students were able to spread more awareness of the increased prices by passing out flyers and stickers across FAU’s campuses.
“With Planned Parenthood’s affiliation, FAU serves as a model for universities across the state and country to follow in support of this issue,” said Fulton.
But Fulton’s efforts haven’t been without controversy. Although he successfully got the Student Government on all of FAU’s campuses to pass a nonbinding resolution supporting lower birth control prices, they weren’t unanimous votes.
“[Fulton] just did this so it looks like he gets things done,” said Jenna Sereni, SG House Speaker pro-tempore. “Besides, this bill has no place in the realm of SG. Condoms are free at FAU – abstinence is free, too.”
The resolution isn’t a bill, which means it doesn’t force FAU to lower the cost of birth control. One day, SG may vote on a bill that subsidizes birth control on campus, said Michael Burdman, chairman of the ways and means committee in the Boca House of Representatives.
“I do believe that the resolution will get passed as a bill one day,” Burdman said. “I do personally support the resolution, but not as a bill. Birth control is a luxury. You don’t need it to survive.”
According to Fulton, he knew from the beginning that SG wouldn’t pay for the difference in cost of the lowered price if the bill were to get passed. “The funding would initially come from student health services and other university contingently accounts. But we haven’t even begun to open that can of worms.”
