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A new provision in the proposed budget signed by President Barack Obama last week could help significantly reduce the cost of birth control for young women by allowing pharmaceutical companies to reinstate discounts on contraceptives that they had previously offered to family planning clinics.
Johnson & Johnson, the makers of the Ortho Evra contraceptive patch for women, has agreed to settle lawsuits filed by Canadian women who suffered from blood clots, heart attacks or strokes after using the patch. The drug maker avoided trial by spending more than $68 million to settle similar claims by women in the United States, according to Bloomberg.
A British survey suggests one in three women spend no more than five minutes selecting a suitable contraceptive method to use, according to Medical News Today. The report, conducted by Family Planning Association, is part of the organization’s Finding the Perfect Partner (Choose What You Use) campaign to help reduce unplanned pregnancy and abortion, and to promote greater control over contraceptive choice among women and health professionals. It found that despite the seemingly little care women put into the decision of what type of birth control to use, nearly half have had an unwanted pregnancy scare.
Students at Texas Christian University (TCU) now have access to more affordable contraceptives through the university’s Health Center, according to the TCU news Web site Daily Skiff. The Health Center negotiated a contract with drug companies to offer the discounted rates to students requesting contraceptives such as Ortho Tri-Cyclen and the Ortho Evra Contraceptive Transdermal Patch.
Public Citizen, an 80,000-member nonprofit organization dedicated to consumer advocacy, petitioned the FDA to ban Johnson & Johnson’s contraceptive patch Ortho Evra (ethinyl estradiol/norelgestromin). The organization requested complete removal of the contraceptive within 6 months.
