With this troubling economy looming over us, it seems nothing is safe from the choking grasp of a worldwide marketplace in tailspin. Even sex can’t escape the pattern. More and more people are finding the rising cost in birth control distressing, putting a strain on people’s sex lives, maybe even halting them. For students at Eastern, this isn’t much of a problem. Health Service routinely offers condoms at extremely low prices, encouraging safe sexual practices without burning a hole in students’ pockets.

But what about other people?

Students take this readily available birth control for granted without considering how rising prices affect those who haven’t been blessed with the gift of good birth control at low prices like some kind of contraceptive Wal-Mart. The rising price in birth control methods has some people considering an alternative strategy: Plan B.

Meant to be taken rarely in the event of improper or irregular birth control use, or in the case of unprotected sex, Plan B contains a high dosage of the hormone progestin, reducing the chance of pregnancy by about 89 percent, according to Not-2-Late.com, a Web site by the Office of Population Research at Princeton University and the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. According to the Web site, about 23 percent of women experience side effects including nausea, headaches or vomiting. Read more.