Nearby school George Washington University has agreed to extend its Student Health Insurance Plan to cover prescription contraceptive drugs following complaints that the lack of such coverage constitutes gender discrimination under federal and District statutes. Currently, Georgetown’s comprehensive student insurance plan specifically excludes such coverage.

GWU’s decision to alter its prescription policy for the 2002-03 academic year was the result of a formal complaint letter filed on behalf of GWU Law School students by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and the National Women’s Law Center last November.

“The law that we advised GW on requiring it to provide coverage we believe applies with the same force to Georgetown,” senior staff attorney at Planned Parenthood Federation of America Eve Gartner said.

The letter’s advocates argued that the lack of prescription contraceptives was in violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act and Title IX of the Federal Education Amendment of 1972.

“That type of discrimination is prohibited by educational institutions within the District,” Gartner said.

Although the ruling is specific to the workplace, the D.C. Human Rights Act of 1977, amended in the December of 2000, uses the same language about prohibiting discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical situations, Gartner said. The letter’s advocates maintain that the decision should be extended to include students within the District.

Georgetown currently requires all full-time students to be covered by health insurance, whether it is through the university’s ACE American Insurance Plan or private coverage. The university-sponsored policy for 2002-03 excludes reproductive and infertility services including birth control, family planning and fertility tests.

“Consistent with our Catholic identity, Georgetown’s student health plan does not cover any reproductive or fertility services, including contraceptives,” Julie Green Bataille, assistant vice president for communications, said. “In fact, these have never been covered in any health insurance plan designed for Georgetown students.”

“We don’t believe that either of those statutes [Title IV or the D.C. Human Rights Act] would exempt Georgetown based on its Catholic reputation,” Gartner said.

University spokespeople maintain that the contraceptive prohibition is completely legal in light of the school’s Catholic religious mission, according to an Aug. 29 Washington Post article..

“Our policies have not changed . our efforts are long standing and consistent with our university’s Catholic, Jesuit tradition,” Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez said.

GWU complied with the requests of the public interest groups but asserts that its previous coverage plan had not been in conflict with federal or local legal regulations.

“For all women, the ability to control their reproduction capacity is important, especially for students,” Gartner said. “Getting pregnant would put a crimp on finishing their educations.”

Georgetown does offer its students several cost-free pregnancy options, however, including an extensive Health Education Services Program of the Office of Student Affairs.

“We provide comprehensive pregnancy services such as free pregnancy testing kits, which is certainly beyond what most colleges offer,” Director of Health Services Carol Day said. “We offer information for anyone who wants any questions answered, whether they are about contraceptives or anything else.”

Some Georgetown students are conflicted in regards to the insurance question. Georgetown’s Right to Life group, which sponsors an annual Pregnancy Forum to update students about possible resources for pregnant students and students who are parents, is indecisive about the prescription contraceptive issue.

“Georgetown University Right to Life’s mission is to create a society in which abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty have no place,” Right to Life President Jenny Bradley (MSB ’03) said. “While our group is united in its stance in protecting human life from conception until natural death we do not have an official position on contraceptives because it would be divisive to our group.”

Other students were more firm in their opinions.

“I think it’s great news that GW has gotten prescription contraceptives covered under health insurance,” Katie Cochrane (SFS ’03) said. “Besides the fact that women use [the drugs] for reasons other than birth control, it costs a lot of money.”

Public interest groups such as Planned Parenthood hope to use the GWU precedent to urge other universities to follow example.

The GWU policy change was also the first time the June 2001 Erickson v. Bartell Drug Company federal court ruling, which asserts that employers offering illness-prevention drugs must also cover contraceptives, was applied to a student health plan.