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Georgetown's Policy May Cover Contraceptives After All

Georgetown's Policy May Cover Contraceptives After All

"...technically covered by Georgetown insurance because it’s not intended to prevent pregnancy."

Evidence has now sufficiently established contraception poster-woman Sandra Fluke specifically went to Georgetown University to protest their policy on contraceptives. In her testimony, she blames this policy for leaving friends with genuine medical ailments to rot out all because the college has an excessive concern over policing its students' sex lives. Or does she?

Fluke's testimony contains a notable passage which calls her entire story into question regarding Georgetown's policy on covering contraceptives (emphasis added):

A friend of mine, for example, has polycystic ovarian syndrome and has to take prescription birth control to stop cysts from growing on her ovaries. Her prescription is technically covered by Georgetown insurance because it’s not intended to prevent pregnancy. Under many religious institutions’ insurance plans, it wouldn’t be, and under Senator Blunt’s amendment, Senator Rubio’s bill, or Representative Fortenberry’s bill, there’s no requirement that an exception be made for such medical needs. When they do exist, these exceptions don’t accomplish their well-intended goals because when you let university administrators or other employers, rather than women and their doctors, dictate whose medical needs are legitimate and whose aren’t, a woman’s health takes a back seat to a bureaucracy focused on policing her body.

Georgetown's spokeswoman did not return repeated requests for comment regarding which forms of contraceptive use are, in fact, covered by Georgetown's insurance policy.

Cynical observers may remark that this shows the degree to which Democrats rushed Fluke forward as a witness without vetting her. It is not clear that she is even an expert on the effects of contraceptive bans at Catholic universities, despite this being the main reason she, and not a national pro-contraception mandate leader, was called to testify. At best, this statement makes Fluke's personal connection to Georgetown dubiously relevant. At worst, it calls her entire speech into question.

UPDATE: Even for those students who can't get Georgetown to cover their contraception, there is still hope. CNS News reports the following item:

CNSNews.com confirmed, however, that the Target store at 3100 14th St., NW, in Washington, D.C., which is 3 miles from the Georgetown Law campus, offers Tri-Sprintec, the generic form of the birth-control pill Ortho Tri-Cyclen. Target sells a month's supply of this birth control pill for just $9 to individuals without health insurance coverage for the pills.

A CVS pharmacy only two blocks from the Georgetown Law campus also sells a month's supply of the same generic birth control pills for $33.

Tri-Sprintec is an FDA-approved prescription drug and is the generic version of Ortho Tri-Cyclen. The Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) says it is for: "Prevention of pregnancy." It is also decrease the risk of ovarian or endometrial cancer and, for some women, to fight acne.

The total cost of these two drugs over the course of a three year degree in law school is between $300 and $1200, depending on which pharmacy one buys from. At worst, that is just slightly more than one third of the estimate in Fluke's original testimony, again calling into question the expertise of this witness.

Editor's note: Buzzfeed has picked up on the part of Fluke's testimony that stood out to us. You can read its story here.

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