Women want over-the-counter birth control pill, California and Oregon agree!
New laws in California and Oregon will soon allow pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraceptives—including the patch, the ring, and the pill—enabling women to access birth control without a visit to the doctor’s office.
This doesn’t mean that birth control will be made available “over the counter,” but it should make it a very convenient as a one-stop-shopping affair. There’s more good news: Republicans in these two states generally supported the legislation, and embraced the larger economic argument for preventing unintended pregnancies that seems to elude so many of their fellows.
State Rep. Knute Buehler, a Republican who sponsored Oregon’s law, told the New York Times –
“I feel strongly that this is what’s best for women’s health in the 21st century, and I also feel it will have repercussions for decreasing poverty because one of the key things for women in poverty is unintended pregnancy.”
While Mark DeFrancesco of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists told the Times:
“My basic tenet is there should be nobody between the patient and the pill, I’m afraid we’re going to create a new model that becomes a barrier between that and over the counter. I worry that it’s going to derail the over-the-counter movement.”
