A tough pill to swallow

Once again, the IU student body has been left in the dark. The sudden closing of Cold Stone Creamery's Kirkwood store left us feeling betrayed and gave no time to adjust our dietary habits accordingly, and now we have received more belated bad news. \nTo comply with a new federal law, the IU Health Center has drastically upped the prices of birth control products, without first informing its customers.\nThat's kind of a big deal to us. Next time, we would appreciate a little heads-up.\nThis change is by no means unique to IU. Across the nation, college health centers are losing their bulk discount rates because of a new federal law barring pharmaceutical companies from continuing to offer group-purchasing discounts.\nGood idea or not? You tell us: Abstinence is far from being the prevailing trend on the IU campus, and after hearing the entreaties of the powers that be for years on end, 4,200 women across campus have consented to practice sex in such a way that they don't end up with "mini-thems" nine months later. Shouldn't Congress support that decision? Or would they prefer that we just stop using birth control and flood the welfare system with babies? After all, if college kids are too poor to buy birth control, supporting a child is just out of the question. While they might be OK for students, the college dietary staples (beer and Easy Mac) are not ideal for feeding a baby.\nThere's still one more consideration in this controversy: Since birth control prices are increasing, should we be worried about the costs of other drugs climbing? Well, maybe, but rest assured that certain drugs are still being sold at a common rate. "Vital" drugs such as male performance enhancers are still available to college students on the cheap side. CVS pharmacy sells ViraMax DS, one such enhancer, at 60 tablets for $13.99. \nAs crucial as such enhancing drugs are in day-to-day college existence, we are left speculating about the latent sexism and ageism behind this new regulation. Birth control might not be a personal concern for the mostly elderly Congress, but come on! When they were in school, they experienced the phenomenon known as "free love." Now that collegiate sexual practices have become reliant on birth control, is it fair to jack up the prices and deny us our free love? \nWhen all is said and done, the loss of the group discount rate will probably not cause those on birth control to stop buying it. Nor will it stop them from having sex. But it will cause a lot of whining about the price change -- our prerogative, given the circumstances. Once again, we have a semidiscriminatory decision coming down from Congress that hurts the less affluent among us.\nBefore Congress considers passing another bill like this one, we suggest it does a bit more to publicize the proceedings and take into account the feedback it receives. Just because U.S. population trends point to huge increases in older adults does not mean the "poor college student" demographic should be ignored.