The price of birth control at family planning clinics and college health centers shot up following the passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, a federal law designed to save taxpayers money on Medicaid reimbursements for drugs reports U.S. News and World Report. The bill dissuaded drug companies from offering discounts to clinics, and for the past two years many women have been paying up to 10 times more each month for contraception.

Most clinics began offering cheaper generic versions of birth control pills, but there's no generic version of NuvaRing or the patch. Some colleges stopped offering hormonal contraceptives because they could not afford to keep a supply.

The "Affordable Birth Control Act," which was passed by the Senate earlier this week, was signed into law as part of the 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. It allows pharmaceutical companies to offer the discounts again at no cost to taxpayers, but there's no guarantee that they will reduce their prices. When asked if it would cut prices, a spokeswoman for Schering-Plough, which makes NuvaRing, said, "We're looking into it. It's something we would definitely like to support." Even if companies do decide to offer discounts again, the cheaper birth control probably won't be available to students until next year because clinics still need to renegotiate their contracts with drug companies and sell off their old supplies.

Planned Parenthood issued a statement praising Congress for passing the bill, saying, "We applaud Congress for righting a wrong that has restricted access to basic but critical preventive health care services, and left millions of women at risk of unintended pregnancy." Planned Parenthood and several other women's health groups have been lobbying Congress to reverse the 2005 bill, organizing petition drives and meeting with members of Congress.

As part of the campaign, Planned Parenthood organized a meeting between Senator Harry Reid and Nonie Wainwright, a University of Nevada graduate affected by the bill. Wainwright wrote a blog post last week about the meeting, saying, "It was a little intimidating to talk to a U.S. senator about birth control, but Sen. Reid was great." Wainwright explained that, in addition to preventing pregnancy, as a competitive swimmer, birth control helps her regulate her cycle and compete year round. In 2006 her monthly prescription went from $15 a month to $50. "I recall having to decide between paying for groceries or for birth control - decisions no male athlete would ever have to make," she said.

Cheap Birth Control (Once Again) For College Women [U.S. News And World Report]
Spending Bill Reduces Cost Of Birth Control Pills On Campus [U.S. News and World Report]
Planned Parenthood Press Release [Planned Parenthood]
Nonie Wainwright's Blog [RH Reality Check]

Berrill writes that "feminists who grew up in the 1960s have more recently claimed that it was a "misogynist tyrant in disguise", urging women to be ever more available for male pleasure, and pumping their bodies full of chemicals." It's not a new argument (and, to be clear, it's not Berrill's), but it does imply that men are the ones who enjoy sex, while women just want to cuddle and hold hands until they're ready to make babies.

Things get stranger when Berrill discusses the Pill's effect on women's sexuality. He writes:

Young single women have always had sex – statistics show that in 1875, 40 per cent of brides were pregnant on their wedding day. What changed with the advent of the Pill was that they were able to enjoy sex for the first time.

Uh, what? This is almost as silly as Ali G's claim that "people has been reading books for millions of years, but thanks to new technology, now they is able to write them as well." Sure, lessening the fear of pregnancy helps many women enjoy sex more than they would have otherwise. But we weren't aware that no woman had ever liked sex until 1961!

Berrill says the consequences of the Pill include "delayed childbearing, the huge increase in women going out to work, an obsession with perfect sex, and the rise in infertility have led some to question whether it has increased or diminished human happiness." It's debatable whether the Pill has turned us into a society of sex-perfectionists — or whether it has really led to lower fertility except where it was, um, supposed to. But the Pill has affected women's sex lives, both by letting them control their reproduction and, possibly, by lowering their libidos. So has the Pill made humanity happier? Or have its side effects outweighed its benefits?

How Britain Learnt To Love The Pill [The Independent]

Not that we're necessarily smelling MHC's in all their glory in the first place. As the points out, MHC aroma is "complicated by factors such as soap and aftershave." So um, basically I wouldn't worry about the pill screwing up your love life, beyond the ways it already screws up your love life with side effects.

The Pill Makes Women Pick Bad Mates [Live Science]

The Pill May Change Women's Choice In Men [Telegraph]

Earlier: Estrogen Does Not Exactly Enhance The Porn Viewing Experience

I didn't actually remember that, but I had a friend who grew up in Oklahoma and he told me about it. Anyway, the point is that I told you that I was going to say something nice about this country I am staying in, and fuck if I wouldn't trade the inability to buy tampons at certain times of the day (and maybe even liberal access to Adderall) for a national health system run by sane people who for whatever reason aren't constantly asserting their right to a conscience. (Who wired these people's consciences, anyway?) (And how much do you want to bet these guys all turn out to be key hubs in a massive meth supply chain a few years down the road?) (Okay, yes I miss America again.)

"Pro-Life" Drugstores Market Beliefs [Washington Post]

Louisa Bradshaw Jessop gave birth to a son — her third child — in Austin, Texas. Jessop says that she is 22, though state authorities believe her to be 17. Jessop's husband, Rulan Danial Jessop, 24, "filed a habeas corpus petition in Austin last Wednesday that argues his wife is being improperly detained by the state," according to the Salt Lake Tribune. For now, a Texas judge has allowed a temporary restraining order against the Department of Family and Protective services to prevent them from moving Louisa and her baby to San Antonio.

We don't know how big Louisa's baby is, but if it is a super wee one, the boy has a greater chance of growing into an angry young man. According to research from the University of Helsinki, low birth rate and slow growth in childhood lead to "increased levels of hostility in adults," and this hostility is a harbinger of health troubles like heart issues and type 2 diabetes. Maybe that woman who's still breastfeeding her eight-year-old is just doing it to prevent her child's ire!

28 Million Women At Risk Of Unwanted Pregnancy [Reuters]
Second FLDS Mother Gives Birth While In Texas Custody [Salt Lake Tribune]
Smaller Babies Become Hostile Adults: Study [Newser]

Earlier: At What Age Is A Kid Too Old To Breastfeed?

• Grey's Anatomy's resident homophobe, Isaiah Washington, to appear in PSA tonight condemning hate speech. Too bad pretty much every Thursday night show is on hiatus and no one will be viewing network TV! [People]
  
• A bird took a shit on the President today. Then Cheney tried to shoot it but hit Barney instead. [CrooksAndLiars]
  
• Naomi Campbell to star in a romantic comedy. [Fashionista]
  
• "Women's fertility" supporter wants to save us from birth-control pills. [Feministing]
  
• We continue to have a bad feeling about the whales. [CNN]

• Is your significant other in possession of a unremitting erection? Does he want to have sex when you're trying to shake off jet lag? Well, things aren't looking up on that last point. [DailyMirror]
  
• Would people stop having babies already? It's tiring everyone out. [Guardian]
  
• Your birth control pills are turning male fish into sissies. [NationalGeographic]

• Let's face it: We're all going to go incontinent and there's not a damn thing we can do about it. [USAToday]
• New York women: Sexy? Or Skanky? [Salon]
• One woman in the New York Times' obituaries section today: Dame Mary Douglas, 86, an anthropologist who studied things like the concept of dirt and described "how humans work together to find shared meaning". Obviously she's never heard of us! [NYTimes]