Women's Health on the Holiday Wish List

Reproductive health advocates want federal lawmakers to enact a series of bills in time for the holidays.

At the top of their wish list is legislation to lower the cost of birth control drugs on college campuses and at health care clinics that serve low-income women. They also want more money to finance family planning programs and study postpartum depression.

And they want it now.

Next year, when the presidential campaign further polarizes Capitol Hill, the kind of bipartisan compromise needed to pass reproductive health bills will be next to impossible to reach, advocates fear.

"We absolutely need Congress to act," Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York, said about a bill to allow pharmaceutical companies to return to their practice of selling birth control drugs at steep discounts on college campuses and clinics. "Every day we don't solve this problem there are more and more people who don't have access to birth control."

Higher prices are an unintended consequence of a provision in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, an omnibus spending bill passed in 2006. New York Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley introduced legislation that would restore eligibility for discounted contraceptives for college and low-cost health providers on Nov. 1. Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Claire McCaskill of Missouri followed suit with similar legislation on Nov. 13.

If Congress does not pass the bill, women will continue to pay up to 10 times as much for birth control at clinics serving college and low-income women, Richards said.

Prices began to increase in January, when the Deficit Reduction Act took effect. Some clinics were able to temporarily defray the higher costs by purchasing low-cost contraceptives in anticipation of the change, but those stocks are nearly depleted. Now prices are as high as $40 or $50 a month -- up from $5 to $10 -- at hundreds of clinics.

The House and Senate bills have the backing of Democrats and some moderate Republicans. Party leaders have signaled support, Crowley said in a telephone conference earlier this month, but have not scheduled committee or floor action.

The bill could win speedier passage if it is attached to major legislation currently in Congress, such as one of the 13 annual must-pass budget appropriations bills.

"We have some time here before we leave Washington, and I'm very hopeful we can get this passed this year," Crowley said.

But passing the contraceptive bill through both chambers will be difficult at a time when lawmakers are under pressure to complete action on 12 of the 13 spending bills, reach agreement on funding for the war in Iraq, reauthorize a 2002 farm law and change federal tax policy.

Working Women Into the Agenda

Also on advocates' holiday wish list is a bill to increase federal family planning funding by $28 million. The increase -- the largest in 25 years -- is included in a $151 billion bill funding the Labor and Health and Human Services departments that cleared Congress earlier this month. But Bush vetoed the bill on Nov. 13 because he considered it too expensive.

Advocates are also asking for legislation that would finance federal programs to raise awareness and study postpartum depression. The bill cleared the House in October and now awaits action in the Senate. It has support from such groups as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Washington-based NARAL Pro-Choice America, the leading abortion rights lobby in the country; and Postpartum Support International in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Moving pro-choice legislation has not been as easy as was predicted at the beginning of the year, when California Democrat Nancy Pelosi -- a staunch advocate for women's reproductive rights -- became the first female Speaker of the House.