The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that aims to advance reproductive health policies, released a statement on Thursday calling Republicans’ proposal on over-the-counter contraception “troubling.”
The statement from Guttmacher comes as a number of Republican U.S. Senate candidates around the country have come out in support of making contraceptive pills available over the counter without a prescription. Critics of this move have noted that doing so while also opposing Obamacare (and the measures in it that cover contraceptive care) would effectively make it harder for some to buy birth control. The Guttmacher Institute statement highlights that point.
Legislation by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) that specifically urges the Food and Drug Administration to study making contraceptive pills over the counter is also specifically mentioned in the Guttmacher statement.
“Making birth control pills available over the counter, if done right, would meaningfully improve access for some groups of women,” the statement, by Adam Sonfield and Sneha Barot said. “However, such a change is no substitute for public and private insurance coverage of contraceptives—let alone justification for rolling back coverage of all contraceptive methods and related services for the millions of women who currently have it.”
Guttmacher noted that making contraceptive pills available over-the-counter “has merit” through “removing the need to obtain a prescription, OTC status would eliminate this potential barrier to contraceptive use and thereby increase access.”
But, the Guttmacher statement continued, the best way to expand contraceptive care should go alongside other policy changes. Those include Obamacare’s requirement for most private insurance to cover “the full range of women’s contraceptive methods,” eliminating the prescription requirement for certain contraceptive over-the-counter products, and increasing access of over-the-counter contraception to minors.
Finally, Guttmacher argues to “Keep politics out of FDA decision making” on over-the-counter contraception.
“The evidence is quite strong that providing birth control pills OTC would be safe and effective, including for minors,” the statement said. “The FDA process should be driven by the evidence and free from political interference by the administration, Congress and others.”
That’s specifically directed at Ayotte and McConnell “who purport to be interested in contraceptive access would preempt FDA with unfounded calls to bar minors from benefiting from any future OTC status for birth control pills. This echoes the longtime political and legal wrangling over minors’ access to OTC emergency contraceptive pills, despite clear evidence that minors could safely use these products without a prescription.”
The Guttmacher statement follows one by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists specifically denouncing candidates and election officials who are trying to use the over-the-counter argument as a “political tool.”
Read the whole Guttmacher statement here.
Repubs want it to be OTC so insurance doesn’t have to pay for it. Very transparent. They “appear” to be pro-birth control, but would actually make birth control less available, as the cost, for some, might be prohibitive. When, to be fair, will they demand that Viagra be OTC and not covered by insurance?
I’m all for some birth control being made available OTC just as long as insurance companies will still have to cover it without a copay and as long as it’s available to minors as well. While I may not want very young teens and tweens to be engaged in sexual activity, I would much prefer that they’re protected if they do choose to do so.
And as an extra added plus, if enough women use birth control pills OTC and experience blood clots due to no medical advice, that provides a handy excuse for an outright ban.
Yes but what do you want to bet the next step is on the local level to have pharmacists claim the privilege of barring “minors” (defined by them of course) from buying it without a parent’s consent. Or dispensing to single women. Or dispensing it altogether, the same as they protested dispensing so-called abortion pills (which weren’t).
Plus my insurance flat out will not reimburse any OTC drugs.
If ever there was a place where it is appropriate to start out with, “now I’m not a scientist…” it would be whenever a politician attempts to dictate health policy.
Funny how they’re unable to comment on climate change but are able to know how to provide contraception.