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Over-The-Counter Birth Control Could Be A Thing Soon, Yes Please

Since the dawn of time, contraceptive use has been an issue between women and the men who think they have the right to tell us what to do with our bodies. Between abortion and Plan B, the government has an unhealthy amount of say in whether we have a child or not. Not to mention, they have a large hand in whether we get acne/cramps/other problems related to being a woman that birth control fixes for us so our lives aren’t completely unbearable, so thanks a fucking lot for that. However, considering the shit show that was 2016, 2017 seems to have risen in a much brighter and healthier light: French pharmaceutical company HRA Pharma has teamed up with Ibis Reproductive Health, a research nonprofit, to make birth control available over-the-counter.

HRA Pharma and Ibis Reproductive Health have been trying for a while to make this wish a reality, and originally hoped to get this shit approved by the FDA within the next few years. And it seemed like things were going pretty swimmingly—OTC birth control pills have the backing of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Family Physicians, aka the big guns. California and Oregon had already approved legislation to make birth control available directly at the pharmacy without a prescription. The world was bright and shiny and full of hope.

Sound of Music

UNTIL. Until Trump got elected, because now everything’s fucked (shockingly). If Trump and the Republicans in Congress succeed in repealing the Affordable Care Act, it’s going to make it really difficult to make over-the-counter birth control happen. However, all is not lost (yet). Luckily for us, the FDA makes decisions based on science and not the sexist idea that women should not be allowed to have bodily autonomy  politics. So in other words, even if Planned Parenthood is defunded, abortion is made illegal, and we all live in a real-life version of The Handmaid’s Tale where women exist solely to pump out babies for the rich and powerful, none of that shit would theoretically matter to the FDA. And the good news is that science has our back on this—the majority of the evidence, real evidence, supports the idea offering the pill OTC is safe for women.

In conclusion, if Trump decides not to ruin everything for women (and everyone ever), birth control could be made OTC. So like, keep your fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed