Ramen noodles and birth control don’t have much in common, but University group Students For Choice found a way to combine the two to deliver a message.
On Monday afternoon in front of the EMU Amphitheater, Kate Davis held a packet of noodles in the air, shouting “free ramen!” to passersby. A confused student took the package willingly before she realized there was a message taped on the underside.
Davis, a member of Students For Choice, wanted to let young women know birth control might soon become as affordable as it used to be – but only with the community’s help.
Currently, “you can buy 385 packages of ramen just for the cost of one pack of birth control pills,” said Davis.
Birth control wasn’t always so expensive. When Congress adopted the Federal Deficit Reduction Act in 2005, universities no longer qualified for the discounted birth control products they had previously received. When the act was put into effect in January, birth control prices skyrocketed, increasing more than threefold.

“More than three million college students and roughly 750,000 low-income women who access birth control services are affected by this,” said Rose Kelsch at Planned Parenthood in Eugene.
The good news for birth control users is prices may soon be diminished. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recently signed on as a co-sponsor of the Prevention Through Affordable Access Act, a stand-alone bill that would lower prices.
Kelsch said Oregon plays a large role in passing the bill because both Wyden and Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) sit on the Senate Finance Committee, which will determine whether the bill will be passed through the Senate for a vote. Smith has not stated his position on the legislation.
“Smith might not support that bill, which is a problem,” said Kelsch.
Davis thinks it’s a problem, too. That’s why she and her fellow Students For Choice colleagues attached a call to action on each ramen packet. The message urged students to call Smith and ask him to vote “yes” on the act.
“We’re trying to make this affordable,” said Davis. “Nearly 7,000 women buy birth control from the University Health Center.”
The cost of NuvaRing, a contraceptive ring popular with many students, rose from $10 to $40 after the Deficit Reduction Act went into effect, said Gregg Wendland, manager of the health center’s pharmacy. Other birth control methods such as Ortho Evra, a patch, and Ovcon, a pill, rose to $50.
“We’ve done our best to keep the cost down,” said Wendland. “We had to switch to the generic products available for some of the birth control brands.”
The pharmacy has been able to absorb the cost of some brands by switching to their generic counterparts, but some brands’ patents, such as that of Yaz, have not yet expired and can’t be bought at a cheaper price. Wendland said the pharmacy purchased large amounts of some brands, such as Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, when he found out prices were rising. When the pharmacy has to buy the pill again, it will pay $16 instead of $10, and even students who are covered under the Family Planning Expansion Project will have to pay for it.
Currently, students who qualify for FPEP can still get most birth control products free. Ortho-Evra, Ovcon, Estrostep, and Yaz are the only exceptions.
“Doctors here are very good at trying to find something that students can use that is covered under FPEP, but if there isn’t anything for that individual, they have to pay for birth control,” said Wendland.
Although the University still has “a little bit better pricing because we’re also part of a college buying group,” national chain stores like Wal-Mart and Target are close competitors, said Wendland.
Davis said birth control should be accessible to all women who want it.
“Pregnancy is a big issue in terms of college success,” she said. “Some students don’t have cars, and it’s their first year here. They’re in the dorms … they need a resource on campus.”
[email protected]