Moving Oral Contraceptives to Over-the-Counter Status: Policy Versus Politics

• OTC oral contraceptives would represent an important advancement and complement to other strategies to enhance women’s access to the full range of contraceptive methods, but is insufficient as a stand-alone strategy and would be a poor replacement for insurance coverage of contraceptives. R eproductive health programs and key providers of reproductive health care are under siege in the United States. Social conservatives in Congress are attempting to wipe out funding for the Title X national family planning program, negate the guarantee of contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and defund Planned Parenthood at the national and state levels. While they wage an aggressive campaign against meaningful access to contraception, a few among their ranks have latched onto an idea to soften their anti–birth control image by advocating for over-the-counter (OTC) status for oral contraceptive pills. Some used this issue to great effect during the 2014 elections.