The Hammond Report

Catching up on my newspapers this morning I ran across this letter to the editor in the Missoulian.

Birth control

There's a fix to potential rising costs

As a college student, my budget is extremely limited, but the cost of birth control wasn't anything I ever had to worry about. My university health center provides birth control - like most university health centers - very inexpensively. This year, however, I am very worried that the price might increase a lot because of a mistake made by Congress. That means I, and students like me, will have to make tough choices about how, or whether, we can afford contraception.

It shouldn't have to be this way. In the Deficit Reduction Act, which went into effect in January, Congress inadvertently changed a rule and made it harder for universities and some safety-net family-planning providers to provide their patients with affordable birth control. This is a simple problem for Congress to fix - it will cost the government nothing and can be done immediately.

Students shouldn't have to jump through hoops just to practice safer sex, especially when the fix is so easy. Congress should be making it easier, not harder, for women to have access to affordable contraception.

-Mandie Fleming, Missoula

So according to Ms. Fleming, taxpayers should foot the bill in order for her to be able to practice safer sex. Abstinence may not of crossed her mind but it is a legitimate option when it comes to her «tough choices».

Call me crazy and old fashioned but rather than ask taxpayers to pay for her safe sex, perhaps she should change her behavior.