If she worked it correctly, she could have ended up as a keynote speaker to a certain political convention. 
Planned Parenthood is a good place to get birth control.
I would have considered having to go off campus for BC something of an issue in college. I didn’t have a car so it was kind of a pain to get places. Suburban campus where not a whole lot was close by.
It’s not the end of the world but I can certainly see it being an issue for some students especially if the campus is somewhat isolated. At an urban campus it could well be a complete non-issue.
Although a Catholic student should certainly kniw to expect that inconvenience going in.
While a suburban feel, in reality, about half BC’s main campus is inside the Boston city limits. And of course, a subway stop is directly across the street. BC also runs free shuttles to the other (faster to downtown) subway stop.
^^ I think poster meant ‘BC=birth control’ not Boston College, although true you have to go off campus for BC at BC.
It’s available by mail order now.
Jeez, don’t kill the messenger. It was a real complaint by a real person. The u was Villinova and this was probably 8 or so years ago. The logistics were obviously a problem for her or she would not have complained about it. Maybe she was just a silly brat, I have no idea because I’ve never been to that campus so I don’t know how hard it would have been to get to a pharmacy. I do know that her mom was pretty frugal, so maybe that was part of the issue for them too - that it wasn’t covered by student insurance fees at the time.
Villanova?!? You are very nearly right. next. door. to Bryn Mawr—I suspect there are enough clinics that can fill birth control prescriptions right there in the neighborhood to help anyone who needs it.
And even if there aren’t, you’re within the Philadelphia metropolitan area, which has a reasonably efficient mass transit system—and a quick search tells me that the nearest Planned Parenthood office, should she have needed it very inexpensively, is a 13-minute bus ride away with no transfers.
I mean, I get wanting everything right there on campus and such, but this isn’t a logistics problem, it’s a (perhaps better: it sounds like it’s a) wanting-something-to-whine-about problem. Also, this isn’t really all that unusual a problem, anyway—even the medium-sized public university I work at doesn’t have birth control pills available on campus (there’s no on-campus pharmacy at all), so it’s not like this is a particularly Catholic-school thing.
Yes I’m not positive, but I think she ended up going to the Planned Parenthood office, and she had no car.
I realize that this is not an issue for everyone, and certainly not something most men would ever put a single brain cell towards. But many insurance plans, including ours, only provide coverage for one months’ supply at a time, that can only be filled about 3 days before the end of the month, so that could mean a woman would need to make the trip 9 times during the academic year on certain days only. My D’s grad school health insurance and on-campus clinic provide no cost bcps in 3-months supply.
It is at least something to think about for women planning to attend Catholic colleges.
And from a practical matter, the local CVS and Walgreens may be much more accommodating for students, at least they have evening/weekend hours, which the student health center generally does not.
I don’t know all the details of her situation, as it was a short conversation, but if her family’s insurance coverage didn’t work in PA (they were OOS), then she would have needed to buy the U’s plan, which I assume did not cover bcps, which for those who may not know, may have cost close to $100 per month with no insurance at a CVS.
It was not an insurmountable problem, apparently she solved it somehow, and if one can get bcps now by mail it may no longer be an issue at all if the word can get out sufficiently to those who need to know.
Good grief.
If it is absolutely critical for you to get your birth control pills on campus, then a Catholic college isn’t going to be for you. Similarly, if you need an on campus Starbucks for your daily caffeine fix, I recommend crossing BYU off your list.
Sandra Fluke picked Georgetown. If she needed her BCPs to come as part of her student health insurance, there were plenty of other great law schools she could have picked instead.
A Catholic college may also not work for you if you are offended by the mere sight of a crucifix. But if you need to keep kosher at the student dining hall, there’s a decent chance you’ll be fine.
That’s what PPO’s are for…if they chose a PA-restrictive HMO/EPO, that was their choice (or that of their employer).
btw: Target offers to fill basic scripts for $10 – no insurance needed, as do a few others.
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But many insurance plans, including ours, only provide coverage for one months’ supply at a time, that can only be filled about 3 days before the end of the month, so that could mean a woman would need to make the trip 9 times during the academic year on certain days on
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I think mail-order solves this issue. I think CVS and others provide mail order.
I repeat what I wrote upthread: They’re also not available on-campus at the public institution I work at. Further, my institution doesn’t offer in-house health insurance to students (as opposed to faculty/staff, which, of course, it does)—that has to be arranged by the students or their families themselves, so you can’t indirectly get birth control pills from the public institution I work at through their insurance plan, either.
Seriously, this is not a Catholic college issue. Please stop trying to make it look like one.
Should birth control be provided to students who want it? I recognize there is a diversity of opinion out there, but I’d say yes. Is it? Not everywhere, certainly—but it’s not like it’s provided everywhere except at Catholic (or even religious generally) colleges.
The fact that it’s an issue at sone non-Catholic schools does not mean it’s not an issue at Catholic schools. Is just not exclusive to them.
If the purpose of this thread is to discuss issues that a non Catholic student may have at a Catholic school, it’s perfectly reasonable to mention access to birth control. Nobody said it was an insurmountable problem or that it should be a deal breaker. Just that it may be an issue for some students.
My daughter is interested in a Jesuit school and I certainly wouldn’t expect her not to go there due to this one issue. Given that it’s an urban school with lots of other facilities nearby I doubt I’d even mention it. If the school were more remote I might.
I actually think it is a good example of the little things one might encounter at a Catholic school that could bother you. Not insurmountable, not a deal breaker for most, but for some it might be indicative of all the little things that can annoy you. If it is going to bother you, or if having 10 of these little issues is going to bother you, don’t go because they aren’t going to change. If a school not having a student health center is an issue (Catholic school or not), consider that in making your choice. If a school is going to set the schedule around the Catholic (or Jewish or Muslim) calendar, determine if that’s a problem for you. Classes on Saturdays you can’t avoid? Your call.
Students make the choice of colleges based on a lot of little things. Some won’t go to a school that requires freshmen to live on campus, or won’t let them take a car, or have a core curriculum, or have too many female students. It’s a personal decision on what you want to put up with and what you consider important.
My daughter goes to LMU and is not Catholic. She finds it a non-issue. She does have take theology class but there are many choices.
There is a Walgreens near campus but I did purchase my son enough protection to last awhile when we were getting supplies at Target pointing out to him that it would be unavailable on campus. Like Imodium and Excedrin Migraine, when you need them you don’t want to have to go out to get them.