The FDA has just approved America’s first over-the-counter birth control pill. Is it horrible that my first thought was “I wonder how long it will take for the Supreme Court to ban it?” It’s sad that our society is like this now. I’m just f–king angry all the time about the catastrophic devolution of reproductive rights, women’s rights and LGBTQ rights in America. Anyway, an OTC birth control pill has long been the goal of reproductive rights advocates, especially since too many women don’t have the time, money or medical access to get prescription birth control pills. Let’s see who gets mad about this:
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a birth control pill to be sold without a prescription for the first time in the United States, a milestone that could significantly expand access to contraception.
The medication, called Opill, will become the most effective birth control method available over the counter — more effective at preventing pregnancy than condoms, spermicides and other nonprescription methods. Experts in reproductive health said its availability could be especially useful for young women, teenagers and those who have difficulty dealing with the time, costs or logistical hurdles involved in visiting a doctor to obtain a prescription. The pill’s manufacturer, Perrigo Company, based in Dublin, said Opill would most likely become available from stores and online retailers in the United States in early 2024.
The company did not say how much the medication would cost — a key question that will help determine how many people will use the pill — but Frédérique Welgryn, Perrigo’s global vice president for women’s health, said in a statement that the company was committed to making the pill “accessible and affordable to women and people of all ages.” Ms. Welgryn has also said the company would have a consumer assistance program to provide the pill at no cost to some women.
Since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to an abortion last year, the accessibility of contraception has become an increasingly urgent issue. But long before that, the move to make a nonprescription pill available for all ages had received widespread support from specialists in reproductive and adolescent health and groups like the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
If Opill won’t be available until early 2024, there’s plenty of time for SCOTUS to hear a fantasist’s case about how Opill should be taken off the market on religious grounds. I’m being serious – the Supreme Court is open for christofascist business. The actual way the right-wing will attack this is through the pharmacies, which is what they’ve done with the morning-after pill – they’ll make an issue over a pharmacy’s right to not carry Opill or they’ll argue it should still be put under the counter, depending on the pharmacist’s whims.
The FDA has approved birth control pill Opill, the first nonprescription birth control pill in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/SGGO9L3gNP
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 13, 2023
Lawd…FINALLY ❣️😪😊
100%! This is great news. Took long enough!
I hope it’s affordable. I remember when you had to go to the Dr and say you had “really bad cramps” and then they’d offer it. As a teen, it was very embarrassing and they didn’t do anything to monitor how it was working or anything, at least with me. We deserve to control our reproductive health, and to have some privacy around these things.
This is well overdue and I too wait for how they will try and take this away from women in need.
I want to be excited about this, but mostly I’m just sad because I feel like this product will never actually make it onto (accessible) shelves. I could see it behind the counter without a prescription, which defeats most of the point. A 14 year old will likely be just as intimidated asking a disapproving/frowning pharmacist for this as they would be asking their parent or a regular doctor.
I don’t understand how the party that “wants to stop abortions” can be so against something that literally PREVENTS unwanted pregnancy and, ergo, resulting abortions. The logic gap is painful.
Behind the counter and/or not stocked at all for religious freedom reasons.
It’s not a logic thing. They want people to be forced to give birth. It’s about criminalising sex for all but a select few and ensuring more babies (Coney-Barrett said as much with her “domestic supply of infants” garbage). It’s about control.
“Domestic supply of infants” What the actual Hell??
No words can convey how vile that statement is. Holy cow.
I’m pretty certain that phrase should get you locked up in jail for 6 months as hate speech.
Re: The select few…This is a good point, too. I mean, remember when Herschel Walker was running for governor on an ultra-conservative platform and then it came out that he was encouraging abortions for his mistresses and sending them “get well soon” card with money in them? Total hypocrites.
This country is based on free and cheap labor, slavery, indentured servitude, and exploitation of the working classes. But since the first two no longer exist in any legal form, the third has to take its place. And for that you need lots of babies. Uneducated, working poor. Problem is we don’t have jobs a working poor population. There’s no coal, there are no factories. All we have are unskilled service industry positions. Walmart and McDonalds and the like. But we’ve made sure that workers can’t afford to support themselves let alone families with those jobs, so what we’re creating is an angry, disenfranchised, impoverished population. Some percentage will be corrupted by Faux news to vote for the very corporate overlords keeping them oppressed. But countries with mass, impoverished, disenfranchised populations don’t maintain first world status for long. I don’t have time to complete this rant. More later.
Who will get mad about this, you ask? The same neo-Nazis who get mad about women having the right to abortion. These are really just people who want women barefoot and pregnant all the time. And since they are mostly men, they also want sexual access to women’s bodies at all times. You might think these things should be mutually exclusive, but misogyny doesn’t work like that and never has. They hate paying child support too. It would be so great if we could just celebrate this. Sadly, the world we live in makes that impossible.
If it’s over the counter can’t it be sold anywhere, like the grocery store and Walmart. Just pick it up from the shelf and take to the self checkout, no pharmacist involved just like buying Tylenol or a pack of condoms
Chaine, you’re correct that if this is OTC the big chains will likely stock it. However, I suspect it will be a product they keep in those locked cabinets due to theft “concerns.” (To be fair, I can see this being an appealing item to embarrassed teens and desperate people, especially if it’s pricey). So what we’ll have is access dependent upon the “beliefs” of whatever employee is working that day and whether or not they are willing to unlock the cabinet.
Yes, it can be sold anywhere without having to interact with a pharmacist. Several years ago, Walmart initially didn’t want to carry Plan B but backed down under pressure. They’ll carry this product & for all of the many evils of Walmart, that will make this available to millions of people, assuming it’s affordable.
Overall, great news!
Read this headline and my first thought was Great! Now give us back legalized abortion choices!
Get on with it. And hurry up!
2024 Election is coming. First candidate to vow to return Pro-Choice legally is going to get my vote.
It’s about time! No mention of possible side effects. But this is great news. As a teenager with endometriosis, who frequently visited the ER, my military father had to fight with the doctor for a birth control prescription- my father also had to give his permission allowing me to get them. Hopefully this will help many teenage girls and women with greater access.
The “religious right” will definitely attack this progressive moment and are likely trying to get rid of birth control pills altogether. Can’t have teenage girls and grown women thinking they have agency over their own bodies. But I’m sure Big Pharma has some thoughts…and attorneys.
Women and other minorities have rights bc of the Civil Rights Movement. As long as these groups pursue their own individual agendas and equate civil rights as solely a”Black” issue, rich white men and their sycophants will continue to pass laws diminishing the power and rights of all minorities.
Controlling reproductive rights is just another way of keeping women in their place and preventing them from achieving their educational,personal and professional goals.
It would be wonderful if the very wealthy females in biz would donate and publicize their donations to reproductive choice as a way to gain political power.
Imagine if Bezos ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott and/or Melinda Gates came out on a platform and really pushed on this issue.
Btw, I realize I’m not as well spoken as many on here, but the religious right need to be pushed into their own lane on so many issues.
Mind your own business. Follow your own beliefs but start realizing that everyone has the same rights to pursue their own choices.
I truly hate how US has become such a fractured country, few are even open to hearing a different viewpoint on any issue anymore. It is all shouting each other down, these days.
Come Together, People.
Unrelated to this, I saw a crazy right-wing meme about how everything the FDA says is a lie. So, these wingnuts are apparently afraid of cornflakes. This is gonna send them over the edge. What’s next? Women are gonna want to vote and own property. We must stop this woke madness!
About. Damn. Time
👏
What are the chances it will be affordable, though? I say unlikely.
They absolutely are going to go after Griswold v. Connecticut. That 7-2 ruling in 1965 established that there is a constitutional right to privacy and based on that right to privacy, the court struck down laws banning contraception.