Who Should Control Birth Control?

Imagine the pill, available over the counter, any brand you want, any time you want, at your local CVS or Walgreens. Imagine the pill, about as easy enough to pick up at the store as, say, condoms.

We’ve known for a while now that birth control pills are safe for use without a prescription. In 2012 the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists endorsed the idea, releasing a report saying that not only were women qualified to conduct self-screenings for birth control pills, but also that much of the testing associated with obtaining a prescription for pills wasn’t medically necessary.

So, if birth control pills don’t actually require testing or exams to use, why do the 10 million woman currently using oral contraception in this country still have to schedule, and in some cases, pay, for an appointment with a doctor to get a prescription for it? Why do I go through my insurance company, my employer, and the government in order to get it, if none of that is necessary? Women deserve to have the freedom to get oral contraception without a middleman in the equation at all.

Just three weeks ago, Republican Senators Cory Gardner and Kelly Ayotte introduced a bill that would create a fast track for manufacturers of contraception to get their products approved by the Food and Drug Administration for over-the-counter administration. Gardner says it’s time to remove “government bureaucrats between you and your health care plan,” and he’s right.

The bill has two main goals, according to Gardner’s press release: It incentivizes manufactures of contraception to get their drug approved by the FDA for over-the-counter sales (by waiving the filing fee and granting priority review). Then, it would repeal the part of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits the use of health savings accounts to cover non-prescription medications.

Liberals who oppose this bill aren’t placing as high a priority on offering women healthcare options as they are on making sure those options come from Democratic policy. For example, Senate Democrats claimed the bill is just a foot-in-the-door approach to getting the Affordable Care Act itself repealed, and that the price of birth control might actually increase for the consumer once it is available over the counter. Planned Parenthood’s president called the bill “a sham and insult to women” and claims politicians involved have “no credibility based on their voting patterns”, because of their pro-life beliefs.

While it’s correct that part of the Affordable Care Act would be repealed, it would allow the ACA to cover non-prescription birth control and effectively open the door for complete receipt reimbursements. So while some opposition claims this a Republican ploy to woo women voters, there is evidently a way the ACA and this bill can actually work together to help people. If the ACA truly wants women to have the financial freedom to obtain birth control, reimbursing for OTC oral contraception still should be covered.

(Remember, we’re only talking about the pill OTC. Other forms of birth control like IUDs would still be covered in full by the ACA and it’s reasonable to assume that not every oral contraception brand would take up the government’s offer to get FDA approval for OTC status.)

Besides, the price of oral contraception would likely decrease once it’s available over the counter, because different drugs would be competing directly against one another. If brand choices are left to the consumer, rather than her doctor, women will actively have more control about what drug they’re getting when.

Finally, consider the most obvious potential effect of this bill: a drop in the nation’s abortion rate. When birth control for women is easily accessible, more women use it, and some studies project abortion rates will lower by as much as 25 percent. Now that’s something that deserves bipartisan support.

When it comes to birth control, women deserve the option to protect themselves from pregnancy without interference from insurance companies and bureaucrats. Give the freedom of accessible birth control to women whose employers don’t cover the pill because of religious exemption, women who are running a household and can’t afford to take off work to pay for a doctor’s visit, and immigrants who face a language or poverty barrier in obtaining a prescription.

Let the free market drive prices down, and get the government out of regulating access to contraception.

Liberals should be enthusiastic about supporting this bill. After all, it agrees with what they’ve been saying all along: a woman—not the government—should be in control over her own reproductive rights.

Gwen Thomas ’17 is an English concentrator in Dunster House.