During the summer of 2005, when most of the University of Wisconsin's student population had left for the summer, the state Assembly passed the University of Wisconsin birth control ban. This bill explicitly prohibited University of Wisconsin health services from prescribing or dispensing emergency contraception to students, and the state attorney general said it could be interpreted to ban all birth control. The state representative who introduced the bill believed open access to EC encouraged promiscuity. The bill ultimately didn't become law, but it could have left thousands of students who relied on university health services for contraceptives with few alternatives. The University of Wisconsin is similar to our university in so many ways that it presents the question: How secure is students' access to birth control in Ann Arbor?

Dr. Robert Winfield, the director of University Health Services, provided the answer. The University is a state institution, meaning state laws govern it. If the state Legislature in Michigan were to pass a law similar to the one that nearly passed in Wisconsin, UHS would have to abide by it - much like the Department of Public Safety has the responsibility to enforce the state's minor-in-possession law. While Winfield believe that such legislation is unlikely, the Office of Governmental Relations would consult UHS in the lobbying effort against such a measure. The Wisconsin case is an excellent reason for students to always keep an eye on what is transpiring in Lansing.

-Amanda Burns