When birth control prices starting soaring after changes prompted by Bush's Federal Deficit Reduction Act of the 2005, anti-contraception operatives played dumb. They claimed it was by no means intentional for the law to remove college health centers and private birth control clinics from the list of those eligible for discount drug pricing. For years they were included and it enabled women at greatest risk of unplanned pregnancy to access birth control affordably. And so when simple solutions were offered to remedy this "unintentional" act, like asking HHS to work out a simple correction (only to be rebuffed), it was more than a little suspicious that those pleading innocence were unwilling to back a remedy. More deliberate steps were taken; Congressmember Joe Crowley and Senator Barack Obama proposed bills to fix the problem, which have yet to pass.

And so the people who back contraception tried again. They tacked a provision to restore the discount drug eligibility onto a bill to fund the Iraq war. The provision would, once again, make college health clinics and Planned Parenthoods part of the discount drug program. It would cost the government nothing. It is simply an administrative change, but it would make pregnancy prevention more accessible to Americans most at risk of unwanted pregnancy. Enter the Unplanned Family Research Council, and anti-contraception champion Senator Tom Coburn.

The Unplanned Family Research Council now expresses outrage that this provision would be included along with what they consider to be other worthless programs like "healthcare and NASA." They write:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has a funny way of expressing his appreciation for our troops this Memorial Day. Rather than honoring our soldiers with the funding they need, the Senate is stuffing the war supplemental bill with pro-abortion paybacks for groups like Planned Parenthood. By fattening up the legislation with controversial earmarks, the leadership has not only jeopardized the timetable for the bill's passage but raised the possibility that it will not pass at all. Despite the urgent needs of our servicemen, Reid and his liberal allies are more concerned about funding the war against the unborn than the war in Iraq. The bill is rolling in pork, including a provision that would give groups like Planned Parenthood a big discount on contraceptives and Plan B, which can act as an abortifacient. It would also be a massive cash cow for university health centers, which would also be eligible for a discount on such drugs. Keep in mind that these clinics already make profits on the pills when they mark them up for resale. Nor are many of the recipients suffering in the financial department, thanks to a hefty investment of your hard-earned tax dollars. So the $165 billion question is: What does any of this have to do with Iraq? Absolutely nothing. Reid's personal political agenda is exposing our active-duty troops to new risks as they wait on Congress to duke out the abortion provisions. The bill is bloated with millions of dollars in other unnecessary pet projects for infrastructure, health care, NASA, and more. Until Democrats put their anti-war vendetta aside and both parties rein in spending, the supplemental faces failure on the floor or due to the President's veto pen. Contact your Senators today and remind them that this is no time to make a political statement. Now is the time to support our troops!

The Congressional Quarterly reported today that Coburn was trying to figure out a way to prevent the fix. CQ quotes a Coburn spokesperson:

“Sneaking a divisive provision into a war spending bill that will help Planned Parenthood . . . is politics as usual — not change,” said John Hart, spokesman for conservative Republican Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Hart said Wednesday that Coburn was looking at ways to address the provision, but it wasn’t the subject of any floor debate Thursday.

The amount of effort the anti-contraception team is putting into protecting this "unintentional" scale back in contraceptive access is telling. It appears some mistakes are really worth fighting for.