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George Washington University has agreed to expand its student health plan to cover birth-control pills and other prescription contraceptives in response to a complaint from a female student that the old plan constituted sex discrimination under federal and District statutes.

The student was backed by public-interest and women's health advocates who say they hope to exert similar pressure, including possible litigation, on colleges across the country.

"It is our hope that this is the beginning of a wave," said Leslie Brueckner, an attorney with Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, which represented law student Amy Moses.

Moses's case is thought to be the first attempt to apply a 2001 federal court ruling, ordering an employer to cover contraceptives if it covered illness-prevention drugs, to the student health plans offered by many colleges and universities.

Moses, 27, said she was distressed to learn at campus orientation last year that the student health plan covered abortions but not contraceptives. "It didn't make sense," she said.

Attorneys from Planned Parenthood, the National Women's Law Center and the trial lawyers group wrote George Washington in November, saying that the health plan's failure to cover contraceptives was a glaring case of sex discrimination.

Richard A. Weitzner, George Washington associate general counsel, said the policy change was a response to student demand. He said the old plan did not violate federal or city laws. "But we didn't need to resolve that, because this was something students wanted, and we decided to change the plan," he said.

Weitzner said contraceptives were excluded in the past because they were "inconsistent with the purpose of the plan, which is to protect against major medical issues."

About 1,500 of the university's 20,000 students are enrolled in the plan, officials said, while most others are covered by their parents' or employer's health policies.

Dina Lassow, an attorney with the National Women's Law Center, said the issue is at the leading edge of the movement to bring equality to health care.

"Historically, women's health has been given second-class status," she said. "What brought this to everyone's attention is that as soon as Viagra came on the market, health insurance started covering it, and women said: 'What is this? Why don't you cover my pills?' "

Last year's federal ruling did not apply to schools. But Brueckner said the gender-equity rules applying to schools that receive federal funds should extend the same logic to college health plans.

Roughly one-third of four-year colleges in the United States offer students optional prescription drug coverage, and about half of those plans cover contraceptives, according to Stephen L. Beckley, director of a health care management and benefit consulting firm for colleges and universities.

The University of Maryland's student health plan covers contraceptives, in compliance with a law regulating all fully insured health plans in the state. George Mason University and the University of Virginia do not.

Attorneys who challenged the George Washington policy said other schools could be targets. Among them are Catholic schools, such as Georgetown and Catholic universities. Spokesmen for both schools said that their health plans prohibit contraceptives in accordance with Catholic doctrine and that they have a legal right to follow their religious mission.

"I'm sure we would vigorously dispute any challenge of that nature," said Victor Nakas of Catholic University.

Planned Parenthood attorney Eve Gartner said no such religious exemption exists in the District. "The case law in the D.C. courts strongly indicates that there is no exemption to that law for Catholic educational institutions," she said.

Other District schools, including American and Gallaudet universities, said that their health plans do not cover contraceptives but that their pharmacies sell them to students at below-market prices.

Gallaudet offers contraceptives for $25 a month to students who can afford to pay and free to those who cannot. "No one has yet raised an objection to this arrangement," said spokeswoman Mercy Coogan.

American University spokesman Todd Sedmak would not say how much its student health center charges for contraceptives, but he said it is less than the co-payment for other drugs. "This allows for cost savings across the board for all the students," he said.

Such arrangements are common across the country, Beckley said. "It's a pretty moot point for a lot of schools, because the cost of contraceptives at student health centers is way below market," he said.

But attorneys for the groups that backed the George Washington student's complaint said inequities might lurk in such arrangements, such as requiring students to visit specific clinics to get the drugs.

"It needs to be more carefully looked into," Lassow said. "The caution is whether they're really as good as they sound."