Over-the-Counter Birth Control: Win Win for Everyone?

This is an interesting idea – The beloved Pill switched to simply being over-the-counter, available alongside other type common-ailment pills like cholesterol pills and migraine pills. The FDA is reportedly considering such things. And it sounds like a god-send in most cases. An article on Care2 described making birth control OTC as “win win.” Jezebel’s Erin Gloria Ryan makes sweet sarcasm: “But without a doctor to look at them disapprovingly, how will sex-having ladies know to feel bad about themselves?” Birth control is easily twisted into an infuriating example of control over the rights of the female gender, as this process of control lies at the political core of most interpretations of Christianity. I think we also have to remember that, as far as control goes, here lies another all-American class issue.

As a mother of three daughters (two are now older teenagers), I can see the good side of easy access to birth control, believe me. As a woman who loves her birth control madly and who, being a teenager once, feared the scrutiny of physicians and her parents but had unprotected sex any way, I like the idea of lifting a stigma or two. Making birth control pills OTC - offering up a little Kiosk for diagnosis even more reliable than a doctor - is a way to potentially side-step the recent political war going on between “religious employers” bitching about being forced to pay for insurance covering “women’s health.” I use the quotes here because the terms have been twisted into all sorts of alternative terms, depending upon your approach and side, “women’s health” especially – a.k.a. “slutiness” “whoredom” “prostitution.”  If we make the Pill OTC, then we can tell everybody it’s up to the woman and only the woman, so the rest of the controlling world can shut the fuck up.

I’m all about short-cuts and easier paths. I’m one of those people who will cut across the pretty grass (barefoot, if possible) if it saves me a minute. But I think in our efforts to make things easier, we need to be careful not to overlook those who need the Pill the most. If the Pill becomes OTC, then the funding and livelihood of places like Planned Parenthood become absolutely VITAL.


Places like Planned Parenthood will be needed more than ever to provide birth control for those who need it most at reduced costs or FREE, otherwise making such pills OTC doesn’t offer much help for those who truly need it. I’m talking about those who qualify for and rely upon state health insurances or those who can’t even qualify for state health insurances, as the qualifying maze is too often impossible. We're not all able to slip into a drug store, buy our pills, and walk back out with a little brown bag and a shrug. The first thing I thought of when I read about this was the teenager who lives in poverty (most likely to become pregnant) who barely has a pot to piss in, let alone the money to afford the potential OTC cost of the Pill. And I’m not a pro when it comes to economy, but I could foresee the pill if it goes over-the-counter as not being cheap, simply because it will be high demand. Please tell me if I’m wrong (I am all for easing my worries). We should remember that carrying birth control on store shelves at all becomes up to the scrutiny of private store-owners, owners of massive chains like WalGreens and Wal-mart, which means more control in the hands of the great money makers who have proven themselves to be terrifyingly influential in our ways of living.

Here's what I know: my family and I have received state insurance before, and we have gone to many state-funded clinics. When you have a condition and the clinic’s physician looks at you and says, “Go buy this as treatment. It’s over-the-counter” (an action far more common today than it once was), your heart can drop. That treatment can cost more OTC than you can afford to spend. Of course, you can’t spend money you don’t have, especially if you’re receiving a tiny TANF check. You will skip the OTC suggestion. Or you will lie, tell him or her you’ve tried the OTC treatment before, and it doesn’t work, whatever it takes to get them to give you a prescription that will be covered by your insurance so there is no out-of-pocket expense, so you might instead pay your mother-fucking rent. And you will continue to lose faith in your doctor and in a system who refuses to understand what it’s like living in poverty.


Women who are below poverty level (and there are lots) need to have free and easy access to birth control. The Pill OTC doesn't necessarily solve that - in fact, in many cases, it makes access harder. The OTC solution won’t work so well if profit and the values of private business are left as priority over the good of all people.

To me, offering the Pill OTC feels like a sneaky way to appease the middle class woman (who actually has a voice).

This is not goo on the belly, people

STILL want that abortion, dearie?

Just what in the crap is going on in this country, you guys?  A room full of men deciding the fate of birth control coverage?  But men can’t even…and they don’t…so why should they…what?! 

 Not only that, but Virginia, Texas, and Iowa with the forcible transvaginal ultrasound for women wanting an abortion?  Transvaginal – that’s up in the vagina, if you didn’t know.  That’s a medical instrument forcibly placed into your body (which you have to hold?!).  Um, so the FBI recently changed the definition of rape to include, well, EXACTLY THIS.  Penetration against one’s will.  And that’s what the mandatory ultrasound laws are about.  They’re not about smearing goo on a woman’s tummy and then forcing her to check out the screen with the wavy blue lines that is supposed to magically make her change her mind but actually pretty much never does.  The laws are about legalized rape. 

 And for what, you GOP assholes?  It’s dizzying how fast it comes down to treating women like children or chattel when you start unraveling the reasons a state would legalize rape.  Let’s see if we can follow it, if we slow it down a little:

1.       We think abortion is bad, which means

2.       Abortion is bad, which means

3.       Abortions shouldn’t happen which means

4.       If abortions still happen women don’t know better which means

5.       We have to protect the women from themselves which means

6.       We have to remind them of their natural purpose which means

7.       If we force them to look at wavy blue lines they will come around and they will thank us in the end.

I really can’t believe this is on the table at all, but let’s let the fact that it is fire us up.  Komen learned a lesson about politicking women’s lives, and I think the GOP needs a lesson about staying the eff out of women’s personal decisions. 

A Sex Note: Would You Want One?

The other night, on my pillow, I found a short tender letter written by my 17 year old daughter. In the letter, she got straight to the point and told me her and her boyfriend of nearly a year had had sex for the first time. She assured me they were responsible and safe. She said they hadn’t really planned for it to happen, but it just kinda’ happened. She said they were being responsible, and she just wanted me to know. I think they were both virgins (but it’s hard to be certain). I cried after I read the letter – first, because of her loss of innocence (She’s grown up too fast!), second, because she was choosing to keep me informed of her most intimate secrets (Holy smokes! I thought she semi-hated me most days!), and, third, because I worried I might be responsible for nudging along the process (!). Just the week before, I told her she needed to get out more and have some fun while she was young. She doesn’t go out much. She’s never in trouble. She plays the flute. Her grades are incredible. And I have been getting her birth control for the last three years – not because she’s been sexually active but because she has awful heavy periods (a curse that runs in the family).  I suggested them to make her less miserable. Did I give her a green light? Should I throw up a stop sign now?

During a phone call, I told my older sister about this endearing letter. Maybe I was bragging a little, fluffing up the idea that my daughter and I have a relationship which consists of some near-to freaky trust and honesty. Of course, for all I know I suppose my daughter could’ve had sex with her boyfriend months ago. When I was a horny teenybopper, either I told my mother absolutely nothing or I lied impulsively, sometimes even when I didn't need to. Given the note, however, I think it's safe to call the bottom line more important (i.e., The wonder of the fact that she told me anything at all.).

Maybe I wanted some big sisterly advice on what to do now. My sister is five years older than me, and seeing as we grew up with a working single mother, my sister did a lot to mother me herself. She’s survived one hardass life; she’s in a better place now than she’s ever been – finally divorced from an dumbass and affording her rent. But she still works 40+ hours a week as a temp when she deserves the rank of an admin. She’s a good mother of four, including two exhaustively moody teenage daughters, and has recently become a grandmother.

I told my sister, “My daughter told me her and her boyfriend had sex.”

My sister responded, “And she felt compelled to dump that information on you?”

I laughed off her response. She wasn’t meaning to be funny, in fact, she was feeling kinda' end-of-the-day sleepy/grouchy. Still, her response made me think. We parents of teenagers are ever-haunted by these concupiscent heebie jeebies. It's hard to watch our big-eyed babies become creatures of curves and angles driven by lust. I was a teenage mother, so I fear I may have overcorrected. I bring up the myths and truths of sex, the responsibilities of birthing people, maintaining self-confidence and control amidst gender stereotypes, etc., at least once a week or more, and I've been doing this since my daughter first budded boobies (age 9?). I've always believed the sex talk sure as hell doesn’t end with the Birds and Bees speech or with the official display of whatever illustrated version of the “Tell Me About My Body” book otherwise hiding on the shelf.

So I ask fellow parents, would you want a little informative letter on your pillow? Would you pry for it? Would you hide from it? How much could you bare to know and what would you do with that information if you got it dumped on you?