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Should Birth Control Pills be available over the counter?

Should Birth Control Pills be available over the counter?


  • Total voters
    39
As for the insurance thing, my insurance pays for over the counter allergy medicine for my wife as long as a doctor writes her a prescription.

But I agree on the medical implications. My wife has has issues with various forms of birth control and I think it would be smart to talk with a doctor before and during its use.

Most people don't realize that there are a lot of different doses and types of birth control, and that not all women are able to take them all without some potentially serious complications. I've said this before. I can't take many kinds of birth control because I have a blood disorder that increases my chances of a blood clot, which is something that many birth control pills also do.
 
Then we better get rid of tylenol as an over the counter drug. One can be informed of the risks by reading the warning label just as effectively as having the doctor read them to you. If something is not right, then go see a doctor.

No, they can't because they simply wouldn't go through the questioning that doctors go through (or should) when you request to be put on birth control, including questions about any conditions you have that do limit which birth controls you should be on. I would never have known that I couldn't take certain types of birth control with my blood condition if I hadn't have needed a prescription for it and the doctor basically went over it with me. When I was first told about the disorder, I was not told that this would limit my birth control options. That didn't occur til I went for the birth control prescription.
 
I like under the counter better because of the intrigue. "Pssst, here." (passes something in plain brown paper bag under counter, looking left and right).
 
I said other, birth control pills should be bought over the counter but not without first consulting a doctor and maybe testing to find out which birth control pill would be safe and effective for the woman who wants to buy them.
 
No, for two reasons, first there are medical implications to taking the pill not associated with condom use, so it needs to remain a medical issue. Secondly, by making it available over the counter, it demands that it be paid for independent of insurance which would make it financially out of reach for many women, most of whom are those not financially viable as mothers either. So..... NO not a good idea at all.

I'm sorry, but you need to better back up your claim of not being affordable. I'm not going to say you are automatically wrong, but that doesn't hold a lot of common sense. Are we going to get upset that various pain or heartburn medications are OTC and thus not affordable to individuals? Maybe not the pain medications, but there are various OTC meds that people take simply because they are cheaper than the prescription strength versions.

i do fully agree with you that the comparison with the condom is bad as the latter is a physical barrier as opposed to the pill's chemical " barrier"
 
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Yes and it's absolutely bat**** crazy the absolute insane red tape a girl has to go through to get the pill. It's an absolute illogical catastrophe.


Honestly the govt. should mail every girl by a certain age birth control pills 100% Free and this should be a Federally mandated program. The amount of problems this would fix are literally unfathomable. We're talking hundreds of billions in savings to society. Maybe even trillions.
Big waste of money. If we could insure that every female would use them, that might be a little more viable. But there would be just way to many thrown away.
 
Don't make it OTC but states should allow a protocol for pharmacists to prescribe it. There are risks with birth control and it's not safe for some patients. Different considerations should be taken into account given the hormones in each preparation. I don't think it's wise for oral birth control to be completely OTC, but I think increased access via a pharmacist prescribing and dispensing it would be better. The safety and selection/monitoring would be fine and people would have better access. Things like IUDs should still be prescription only though for obvious reasons.
 
Most people don't realize that there are a lot of different doses and types of birth control, and that not all women are able to take them all without some potentially serious complications. I've said this before. I can't take many kinds of birth control because I have a blood disorder that increases my chances of a blood clot, which is something that many birth control pills also do.

I commented earlier on the doses and various types; the expertise of a healthcare professional is essential. I've lived long enough to have seen in two different generations some of the very serious side effects of oral contraceptive that were once thought entirely safe. In the first, my parents' friend who was the wife of an OB/GYN and, of course, had access to all the "latest and greatest," developed a permanent "raccoon mask" and then stroked out.

In the second, because of crippling menstrual issues and after everything else had been tried, a 12-year old was given "the pill." It stopped the ghastly problems, so she took them faithfully for over 20 years...and woke up one day with Stage IV breast cancer (no family history, fit, healthy, etc.) Those hormone pills caused this; I know they did.

I'm horrified by the idea of over-the-counter birth control pills. They're potentially too dangerous, and they're also too likely to be used incorrectly or misused, IMO.
 
Don't make it OTC but states should allow a protocol for pharmacists to prescribe it. There are risks with birth control and it's not safe for some patients. Different considerations should be taken into account given the hormones in each preparation. I don't think it's wise for oral birth control to be completely OTC, but I think increased access via a pharmacist prescribing and dispensing it would be better. The safety and selection/monitoring would be fine and people would have better access. Things like IUDs should still be prescription only though for obvious reasons.
Yes!

digsbe has it right, I believe.

Make it CSA-V (not OTC technically, but dispensed from behind the counter only by a licensed pharmacist).

If not, it's gotta' be scripted.

There's a myriad of preparations, and different preparations are tailored to individuals.

This is hormone therapy, and serious stuff - if not done right, it can be ineffectual or even worse, dangerous.

I was going to opine it should be script only, until I was reminded of CSA-V status, and now think that might work as a compromise - maybe.
 
I'm horrified by the idea of over-the-counter birth control pills. They're potentially too dangerous, and they're also too likely to be used incorrectly or misused, IMO.
And that goes in spades, if they were to be available OTC to teenagers!
 
I vote yes as long as they are paid for by the individual. Not my business who and how many times a woman sleeps with same as it shouldn't be my financial responsibility to pay for them.
 
Simple enough question.

Making Birth Control available to women over the counter would even the playing field (we don't make men get a prescription and a prostrate exam to get condoms), and lower the costs of birth control. It's been that shifting to OTC BC would result in a 20–36% decrease in the number of women using no method or a method less effective than the pill, and a 7–25% decrease in the number of unintended pregnancies, something you'd think all sides can agree on.

And, generally, it seems most do. Only 26% of Americans oppose allowing Birth Control Pills to be sold over the counter, and 70% support it. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists support it.


However, it became a bit of an issue a while back when Sen Mark Udall was running the worlds-most-shark-jumping-war-on-women campaign against Senator Gardner, who has now introduced legislation calling for making OTC BC a legal reality.


So, where sits DP?

I'm certainly no expert, but aren't there some significant medical considerations as to dosage, etc., that need to be taken into consideration?
 
I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, I think birth control should be readily available to both men and women, so for that reason I lean towards yes.

But on the other hand, most of the women I've known who have been on birth control for awhile have had side effects that needed a doctor to deal with, so that makes me lean towards no.
 
As for the insurance thing, my insurance pays for over the counter allergy medicine for my wife as long as a doctor writes her a prescription.

But by definition, that's not over the counter, it's prescription. My daughter was prescribed a medication but it was cheaper to just buy an over-the-counter drug that was identical, the pharmacist told us that there was no difference between the prescription and the OTC generic at half the cost. Insurance didn't pay for the OTC, but it was still cheaper.
 
And that goes in spades, if they were to be available OTC to teenagers!

I can totally see, for example, forgetting a dose and then just doubling up the next day and etc. Or sharing what you've got with a friend in need. And etc.
 
No, for two reasons, first there are medical implications to taking the pill not associated with condom use, so it needs to remain a medical issue. Secondly, by making it available over the counter, it demands that it be paid for independent of insurance which would make it financially out of reach for many women, most of whom are those not financially viable as mothers either. So..... NO not a good idea at all.

I agree with your first point, however the cost of birth control pills are as low as $10 a month.
 
Drinking too much water can give you medical complications that require a doctor. Seriously people the insanity here of the bygone protestant hesitancy is illogical at best. The good birth control pills do far outweighs the negatives. The irony being most women are already on BC pills so it's an inherently illogical argument. Women seem to be doing just fine on them now the access needs to be made easier (if not outright subsidized).

It's the basic ignorance based patriarchal argument of "Women can't handle the freedom of birth control pills" (When ironically they already are).
 
I commented earlier on the doses and various types; the expertise of a healthcare professional is essential. I've lived long enough to have seen in two different generations some of the very serious side effects of oral contraceptive that were once thought entirely safe. In the first, my parents' friend who was the wife of an OB/GYN and, of course, had access to all the "latest and greatest," developed a permanent "raccoon mask" and then stroked out.

In the second, because of crippling menstrual issues and after everything else had been tried, a 12-year old was given "the pill." It stopped the ghastly problems, so she took them faithfully for over 20 years...and woke up one day with Stage IV breast cancer (no family history, fit, healthy, etc.) Those hormone pills caused this; I know they did.

I'm horrified by the idea of over-the-counter birth control pills. They're potentially too dangerous, and they're also too likely to be used incorrectly or misused, IMO.

To be fair - that is the same logic of the total-vaccine-opposition. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc.
 
No, of course they shouldn't. We don't have nearly enough unwanted pregnancies now - we obviously need more. Making birth control available over the counter might somehow impact this.
 
Of course. People should be able to acquire what they want from willing buyers no matter what the product is.
 
And, generally, it seems most do. Only 26% of Americans oppose allowing Birth Control Pills to be sold over the counter, and 70% support it. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists support it.


However, it became a bit of an issue a while back when Sen Mark Udall was running the worlds-most-shark-jumping-war-on-women campaign against Senator Gardner, who has now introduced legislation calling for making OTC BC a legal reality.


So, where sits DP?
If the chemicals in the birth control pills are not used in rare costly life saving medicines and does not drive up the costs of other drugs that might use those chemicals then sure it should over the counter.
 
It's an amusing topic because when discussed at an upper class table full of Starbucks drinking conservative parents it's never going to be a popular thing. But out in reality, outside the gilded gates of their gated suburban neighborhoods it's pure madness to have any other position because you see firsthand what low access to birth control does to society (and ironically, causes said uber conservative housewives in their suburbia to pay insanely more taxes to subsidize the lives of the children they caused to be born through their opposition to birth control access).


The very uber social conservative nutjobs that oppose easy access to birth control and abortion are the same people who scream about higher taxes caused by lack of access to birth control. We live in an absolutely insane society thanks to the totally fake morality of religion and the chaos it has caused on a policy level.


"Nooooo make it hard for them to get the pill!!! Stop abortions among the poor!!!!!!"

"Stop taxing me to help the poor!!!! Stop taxing me!!!!!"

Absolute insanity.
 
I don't have an opinion yet. It should be determined by qualified people without a conflict of interest based on the level of risk of medical complications.
 
Simple enough question.

Making Birth Control available to women over the counter would even the playing field (we don't make men get a prescription and a prostrate exam to get condoms), and lower the costs of birth control. It's been that shifting to OTC BC would result in a 20–36% decrease in the number of women using no method or a method less effective than the pill, and a 7–25% decrease in the number of unintended pregnancies, something you'd think all sides can agree on.

And, generally, it seems most do. Only 26% of Americans oppose allowing Birth Control Pills to be sold over the counter, and 70% support it. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists support it.


However, it became a bit of an issue a while back when Sen Mark Udall was running the worlds-most-shark-jumping-war-on-women campaign against Senator Gardner, who has now introduced legislation calling for making OTC BC a legal reality.


So, where sits DP?

I didn't know they weren't?
 
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