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Everyone should have ease of access when it comes to birth control pills. Unfortunately, that is still not the case.
Because of the increased rates of unintended pregnancies across the US, birth control has been allowed to be prescribed by pharmacists in Oregon and California, with hopefully more states to join them in the coming years.
Even though contraception through hormonal pills or patches is still viewed in a bad light by both the Supreme Court and various beliefs and religions, it is for a fact that rates concerning unintended pregnancies are slowly on the rise. Something had to be done in order for this to be alleviated somehow.
Over half of all 6.6 million pregnancies across the states are unintended, a rate higher than the one in Europe.
This is why California and Oregon have taken the decision to allow hormonal contraceptives to be prescribed by the pharmacy itself. Women who wish to procure contraceptives are asked to go through a screening process by filling out a form regarding their health and medical background. After the process is complete, the pills are prescribed and are covered by insurance, if one is present.
The struggle to make birth control more accessible has been a long and arduous one, facing criticisms from all sides of the community. This is extremely unfortunate because women in the 21st century should always be able to opt for birth control, due to various reasons. The risk of unintended pregnancy is extremely high especially among the younger women in our country, ranging from pregnancies following sexual abuse or simply a flaw that other contraceptive methods that are applied before sexual intercourse have.
Due to the lack of financial resources, some families should also be able to have the right to acquire birth control, because a child coming into an unprepared family will most likely bring more chaos than happiness.
The passing of this law does come with its problems, some people claiming that because the Affordable Care Act does not cover non-prescription drugs, women might be forced to pay for something that they should be getting for free due to a doctor’s prescription. But there is still time to see the way in which this law will progress in the two states because making birth control completely free of prescription requires a long process of extensive studies carried by the FDA.
Even though birth control has been allowed to be prescribed by pharmacists in Oregon and California, this is not an immediate process. The law will be applied over a couple of months, meaning that women will have to wait a little longer in order to benefit of subscription-free birth control.
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