Birth Control Without a Prescription

A French company wants the FDA to allow sales of its oral contraceptive pills over the counter

The US was the first country to approve a hormone-based oral contraceptive more than 60 years ago, but many Americans still face substantial barriers to gaining access to the pill. Reproductive-rights advocates have long argued that it should be available without a prescription, as it is in more than 100 other countries. Now the matter is before the US Food and Drug Administration, which is considering a request from Châtillon, France-based HRA Pharma, a unit of generic-drug maker Perrigo Co., to sell its daily oral contraceptive Opill over the counter.

A third of adult women in the US have faced some kind of obstacle to obtaining oral contraception, such as lack of insurance or inability to get a doctor’s appointment, according to a 2016 study published in the Journal of Women’s Health. People of color and young people are particularly disadvantaged, and the latter are sometimes refused prescriptions not for any medical reason but because of doctors’ beliefs, says Angela Maske, the strategic project manager at Advocates for Youth, a nonprofit sex education group. “There is demand amongst young people for an over-the-counter birth control pill, for improved access to contraception, so that they can make choices about their health and choose to prevent pregnancy if they are sexually active,” Maske says.