Sept. 26 is World Contraception Day. Its purpose is to educate people about the importance of family planning and access to contraception. Despite the Republicans’ repeated attempts to block women’s access to any kind of reproductive justice, having access to contraception remains a vital part of women’s equality—one that is essential for our health and well-being, and that of our families.
But in 2017, it is still incredibly difficult to get birth control pills in the United States. Though over-the -counter birth control is available around the world, women here are required to see a doctor in order to get a prescription.
There are 102 countries in the world where you can buy birth control pills without seeing your doctor, but the United States isn’t one of them.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has endorsed the idea of true access to over-the-counter birth control since 2012 and 76 percent of doctors and 70 percent of other health care providers have said that people should have over-the-counter access.
It’s mind-boggling that in a country as wealthy and resource plentiful as this one, the powers-that-be refuse to figure out how to do this yet. Birth control pills have been around for nearly six decades and we know a lot about them. The medical field has overwhelmingly already agreed that this would be a safe thing to do. And not only is the pill safe but for some women, it may be the only way that they can get reliable contraception. For those who work and don’t have flexible schedules, have child care responsibilities, or live in rural areas where clinics may not be easily accessible or transportation not readily available, getting to a doctor and then a pharmacy to pick up a monthly prescription poses a challenge.
“Our rural health care is affected by health care provider shortages and patients are facing three to six months wait time for any primary care and even longer for speciality care,” [Denicia Cadena, of Young Women United based in New Mexico, said.] “Eleven of the state’s 33 counties have no OB-GYN … These barriers to contraception disproportionately affect people living in rural communities, low income people, and indigenous people.”
Let there be no doubt that women’s health is extremely political. In this age of technology where we have services that allow you to do car-sharing without actual car keys, and others that deliver groceries, alcohol, and clothes to your door, there just isn’t the political will to get FDA approval of over-the-counter birth control.
This is by no means a new thing.
A Supreme Court decision in 2014 regarding Hobby Lobby (an arts and crafts store owned by an evangelical Christian family) rules that companies cannot be mandated to provide contraception coverage to employees via employer health insurance if it violates their religious beliefs. But employers can’t prevent employees from having birth control either. So between that and the Republicans’ repeated attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, the fight goes on.
But while Democrats are forced to squabble with Republicans over this issue that should have been resolved long ago, it’s those most in need who continue to lose out. These are medications that should be easily available and covered by insurance.
In 2015, Republicans proposed legislation that would have sped up the process for FDA-approval of over-the-counter birth control, but people would have to be over the age of 18 to get the pill.
Given the fact that teenagers are some of the people most in need of over-the-counter pills and given the barriers or discomfort they face in telling their parents or health care providers, reproductive health advocates considered this restriction unacceptable. Democrats said it was simply a ploy to undermine the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate. [...]
“In the era of no-co-pay contraception, there is still a need for over-the-counter birth control to fill the gap when women run out of pills while traveling, for example, or for those who find it inconvenient to get to a clinic,” [Dr. Daniel Grossman from the University of California, San Francisco said ]. “But to reach the largest number of women most in need, it’s critical that a future OTC pill be covered by insurance.”
How grossly unjust is it that the livelihood, health, and well-being of millions of women in this country are being decided by men? These are men who use their religious beliefs as a way to deprive us of our rights, or who are in the pockets of insurance companies and the medical industry which want to squeeze every drop of money out of us that they can. What if we were to actually let women decide what’s good for us? This is the exact reason we need to increase the representation of progressive and diverse groups of women in politics.
Imagine how quickly those women would be able to get over-the-counter contraception to those who wanted it. With Republicans continuing to come up with extremely harmful health care bills that put everyone—and especially low-income and women of color—in danger, its clear we can’t rely on the current folks in Congress to meaningfully champion this issue. If we want this done, we are going to have to adopt a new strategy and push hard for change.