“Plan B” should not be the plan.

Paula Tran, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, depended on her school’s health center for affordable birth control. During her junior year, because she didn’t have health insurance, she stocked up on a year supply from the school clinic, paying a low $7 for a month’s supply. When Ms. Tran returned for her senior year in September, her $7 a month birth control skyrocketed to $35 a month, which Ms. Tran admits will definitely affect her spending. “It will cut into the kinds of notebooks I buy to the kind of groceries I get to the cable package that I order,” says Tran. While Ms. Tran has decided to pay the increased price for her birth control, many students are seeking out less expensive options. Unfortunately, that option is Plan B, better known as the “morning after” pill, rather than preventing pregnancy with birth control.

“Some have stopped already and are taking stock in Plan B and having that around because they don’t have regular intercourse”, says Ms. Tran with regards to some of her friends who refuse to talk to their parents about their sexual activity and can’t use their health insurance to cover the price increase of birth control. Plan B is an emergency contraceptive used after sex in case the unexpected happens. It can prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex, contraceptive failure, or sexual assault. When taken with 72 hours of sexual intercourse, Plan B reduces the chance of pregnancy by 89%. Plan B is not an abortion pill, yet it is intended to be used as a back-up plan, rather than a means of preventing pregnancy like birth control.

Following the effect of the Deficit Reduction Act and the price increases of birth control on college campuses, companies have seen an increase in Plan B. Barr Pharmaceuticals’, the makers of Plan B, sales have doubled following the Deficit Reduction Act going into effect. College pharmacists, who previously sold Plan B mainly on Mondays, have notice that students are purchasing Plan B every day.

Aside from Plan B being a retroactive solution to unwanted pregnancy rather than a preventive measure, it also has other detrimental effects to women’s health. Although there is no physical harm involved in using Plan B, because Plan B can be readily obtained by simply requesting it without a prescription or seeing a health care professional, students will be missing out on annual gynecological exams required when using regular contraceptive prescription as well as menstrual cycle regulation, a benefit of prescription contraceptives.

While birth control price increased as a result of the Deficit Reduction Act, many universities have responded by offering Plan B for free. What sort of message is this sending out to students? Universities seem to be promoting retroactive solutions to irresponsible students engaging in unprotected sex rather than facilitate access to affordable birth control options to students who rather be responsible.

Aside from raising prices, it appears that the Deficit Reduction Act has also promoted irresponsibility, co-sponsored by universities. It’s an unfortunate result to an unfortunate mistake. By how are universities assisting the matter by facilitating additional “mistakes” to occur by students having unprotected sex and offering them a solution, rather than preventing the mistakes from happening. “Plan B” should not be the plan.