Removing the Barrier of Prescriptions for Birth Control is Long Overdue
Key Highlights :
The era of requiring a prescription to obtain the birth control pill may be coming to an end. Recently, advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted unanimously in support of making Opill, a birth-control pill that was first approved by the FDA in 1973, available over-the-counter. This move is significant, not only as an option for birth control as abortion restrictions are taking hold across the country, but also because it's a move that "Free the Pill" advocates and organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) have long advocated for and supported.
According to Dr. Anne-Marie Amies Oelschlager, a pediatric gynecologist and chair for the clinical consensus gynecology committee for ACOG, many nations around the world have access to progestin-only and a combination of oestrogen- progestin pills over the counter, or at least by talking with the pharmacists. “So our country is kind of behind the times when it comes to access to birth control pills,” she said.
A global review of over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives found that oral contraceptives were informally available without a prescription in 38 percent of 147 countries surveyed, and legally without a prescription in 42 percent of countries surveyed. The researchers concluded that a majority of the world doesn't need a prescription to access oral contraceptives.
The pill that could be the first over-the-counter contraceptive available in the United States is called Opill, which has the generic name norgestrel. It works by thinning the lining of the uterus, which can prevent sperm from reaching an egg by thickening mucus in the cervix.
According to Amies Oelschlager, prescriptions are a barrier to access birth control in the United States. “Whenever we introduce barriers to obtaining effective contraception, we decrease the chance that people can access it,” she said. “[This] disproportionately affects people who live in poverty, people who live far away from a pharmacy, people who don't have access to health care providers who will prescribe it and it also disproportionately affects adolescents who have less autonomy over their reproductive health decisions compared to adults.”
A study published in The Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law in 2021 found that low-income people and people of color are more likely to live in contraception deserts. “Whenever we introduce barriers to obtaining effective contraception, we decrease the chance that people can access it,” Amies Oelschlager said.
FDA panelists stressed that adolescents would especially benefit from over-the-counter birth control access, who have less autonomy over their reproductive decisions. The FDA is expected to make a final decision later this summer. While the agency doesn't have to follow the recommendation of the panel, it often does.
Victoria Nichols, Project Director of Free the Pill said in a media statement, “In a historic step forward for reproductive health, a joint FDA advisory committee voted on Tuesday in favor of moving a progestin-only birth control pill over the counter. The days of the current prescription requirement are numbered.”
Removing the barrier of prescriptions for birth control is long overdue. By making birth control pills available over the counter, it would make it easier for people to access effective contraception, especially those who are living in poverty, living far away from a pharmacy, or who don’t have access to health care providers who will prescribe it. It would also give adolescents more autonomy over their reproductive health decisions. Hopefully, the FDA will make the right decision and make birth control pills available over the counter.
