Our Policy Positions
- Health Care Reform and Women
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Birth Control and Other Preventive Care
- Title X: America’s Family Planning Program (Fact Sheet)
- 340B Program Helps Low-Income Individuals and Their Health Care Providers
- Insurance Coverage for Birth Control
- State Medicaid Programs and Pregnancy Prevention
- Photos: Affordable Birth Control Lobby Day
- Case Study: Affordable Birth Control Campaign 2009
- Media Coverage: Planned Parenthood Affordable Birth Control Campaign
- Griswold v. Connecticut —The Impact of Legal Birth Control and the Challenges that Remain (Fact Sheet)
- Sex Education
- Abortion Access
- Global Reproductive Health Policy
- Opposing Attacks on Women’s Health
Case Study: Affordable Birth Control Campaign 2009
By 2007, a legislative error made by Congress two years earlier had caused the price of birth control to increase by as much as 900 percent for low-income women and college students across the country. In many cases, these women could no longer afford to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy.
All people deserve access to birth control — not just those who can afford it. As birth control prices soared, Planned Parenthood launched its Affordable Birth Control Campaign to mobilize students and other activists across the country and gain crucial support in Congress to solve the problem. (Click here to view a video from the campaign).
College students from nearly 300 college campuses in 45 states across the country joined Planned Parenthood in Washington, DC, to tell their members of Congress stories about how they had been affected by rising birth control costs. And more than 50,000 supporters across the country showed their support for the Affordable Birth Control Campaign.
Success
In March 2009, Congress stood up for women and passed a no-cost provision in an appropriations bill to ensure access to affordable birth control. President Obama, a strong supporter of this commonsense fix who, as a senator, had sponsored legislation to restore access to affordable birth control, signed the bill on March 11, 2009.
In the News
The Planned Parenthood Affordable Birth Control Campaign generated extensive positive news coverage. From national stories in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and U.S. News & World Report, to reporting by campus newspapers, the media recognized that the affordable birth control crisis was a crucial issue.
Read and watch the widespread coverage of the Planned Parenthood Affordable Birth Control Campaign.