This New Bill Wants To Make Over-The-Counter Birth Control Pill Accessible For Everyone

For several people, deriving birth control can be a costly task to undertake, and nothing short of a timesuck. However if Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) can make good on the new bill she’s co-sponsoring, @we could be one step closer to birth control being recommended as an over-the-counter medication — without a prescription.


On Thursday, June 13, Ocasio-Cortez followed through. Representatives Ami Bera (D-CA), Katie Hill (D-CA), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Ocasio-Cortez introduced a Residence bill called the “Affordability Is Access” Act, which could make over-the-counter birth control even more affordable and obtainable for those who hope to take it; Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced a partner bill in the Senate.


“If and once the Food and Drug Administration approves an oral birth control that is obtainable over-the-counter, such birth control should be covered by health insurance, without a prescription and without cost-sharing,” the bill posits.


The bill’s sponsors also supporter for making birth control affordable even in the event you don’t have insurance, as is now the case for around 13.7% of Americans.


“It is a brutal form of oppression to seize control of the one important thing a person should command: their own body,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez mentioned in a statement offered to Refinery29. Ladies should have the correct to own and control their own bodies. I am overjoyed to support the #FreethePill legislation, which should make birth control over-the-counter.”


Currently, the only oral birth control pill you could purchase over-the-counter is Plan B, the emergency contraceptive, yet manufacturers advise against using it as a usual birth control method, given that other techniques are more efficient. So in case you wish to start taking a day-to-day pill, you require a prescription, an added step that many doctors have mentioned isn’t necessary. That insinuates people looking for reproductive autonomy need to schedule a doctor’s appointment, take time off of work to create the appointment, pay for that visit, work with their doctor to pick one out of at least 100 different kinds of oral birth control pills obtainable, go to the pharmacy, and pay for their prescription. The cost can vary based on whether you have insurance, and what kind of insurance you have; and the drawn-out nature of all those tasks can also serve as a deterrent to people who need such medication.


there really are some workarounds, including policies in 12 states and Washington, D.C., That permits pharmacists to prescribe the pill in-store, Slate points out. Yet the road to true OTC status is a ways away, especially given that allocating the pill up to the free market would mean that some employers could do away with including contraception in their health-insurance plans, which is currently mandated under the Affordable Care Act. (The ACA does not cover other OTC birth-control techniques, like condoms or Plan B.) That may be why some Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), also support freeing up the pill to a OTC world — simply put, segment of their whole thing isn't wanting to pay for it themselves.


Nevertheless the Affordability Is Access Act isn’t everything Cruz might have wanted it to be. It wouldn’t leave people whose birth control is suddenly obtainable over-the-counter in the cold; the bill would mandate that health insurance providers would still be required to mask the pill and not resort to cost-sharing techniques like deductibles. In short, the Affordability Is Access Act wants to prepare birth control more obtainable to people without consideration of their insurance status.


The FDA currently requires a prescription for oral contraception given its (rather exhaustive) list of potential side-effects, doctors still usually believe the advantages of such access outweigh the risks. As Dr. James T. Breeden, a OB-GYN, told NPR in 2012, “It is much worse to have a woman who is hypertensive be pregnant than to be on birth control pills.” It’s not clear where the FDA stands on approving an over-the-counter birth control pill.


According to the Affordability Is Access Act’s sponsors, this bill is urgent. Rep. Hill mentioned in a statement, “Reproductive healthcare is as personalized as it is important. We’ve seen over and over this administration’s attempts to roll back the generic rights of girls and make it harder for them to access birth control. It’s time to stand up and loudly say: Not on our watch.”


“Reproductive justice isn't only a healthcare distribute, it is also an economic supply plus a civil rights issue,” Rep. Pressley added. “At a time as soon as reproductive rights are under attack, it is more key than ever that we take bold steps to reaffirm reproductive rights for all Americans.”