News

Thanks to new legislation, women in California and Oregon will be able to obtain hormonal birth control such as pills, patches and rings from pharmacists without a doctor’s prescription.

This is good news for residents of those states, but there’s a major potential drawback: It’s not clear whether insurance companies, which are obligated to cover prescription birth control under the Affordable Care Act, will cover the over-the-counter variety as well.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray wants birth control to be available over the counter and covered by insurance whether or not it’s prescribed by a doctor. And Senate Republicans have proposed a bill that would give drug manufacturers more of an incentive to lobby the Food and Drug Administration to make birth control available over the counter.

If that sounds suspiciously generous and progressive for Senate Republicans, it’s because it is. They’re suddenly eager to get birth control approved for over-the-counter use because they want to protect their insurance company donor pals from having to pay for it. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, one of the Republican bill’s sponsors, has collected $470,066 from the insurance industry over five years in office; her co-sponsor, Sen. Cory Gardner, took $240,440 in just one year. Contrast this with Murray, who, in over 20 years in office, has accepted considerably less insurance industry money than Ayotte. Making birth control available over the counter without requiring insurers to cover it would certainly help insurance companies, but it won’t help women who can’t afford to pay for it out of pocket.

Another concern is that women may be less likely to make routine visits to their gynecologists if they can get birth control at their local drugstores. Many women do not need to be prodded into seeking routine medical care, but others are already resistant to it for a variety of reasons, including overwork, poverty, fear of deportation and an understandable reluctance to spend anywhere from two hours to two days traveling to the office of an overscheduled doctor who keeps you waiting forever only to hustle you out in 20 minutes. No woman I know looks forward to stirrups, speculums and sitting around in a paper gown that opens in the front. Even with insurance, doctor’s visits aren’t exactly fun. For most women, there are very few cheap, convenient alternatives other than Planned Parenthood, which, now that it’s under siege from Republicans and gun-wielding maniacs, is more crucial than ever.All of which explains why making access to birth control contingent on getting a Pap smear is nonsensical and unduly burdensome for women. by (Raina Lipsitz )