Posted on 05/27/2015 4:16:39 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) is leading a new push to allow women to buy birth control without a prescription, hoping to deliver on one of the biggest promises of his freshman Senate campaign last year.
A half-dozen Senate Republicans have signed onto Gardner’s bill, which would require drug companies that sell contraceptives to file an application to sell their products over the counter.
“Most other drugs with such a long history of safe and routine use are available for purchase over the counter, and contraception should join them,” Gardner wrote in a statement. He said his bill would benefit women in rural and underserved areas, while also saving people money and time by “increasing competition and availability.”
The Colorado Republican’s push to make birth control available over-the-counter is not winning him more allies among women’s reproductive health groups, however.
Groups like Planned Parenthood have opposed the idea, which they argue could drive up contraception prices.
The group has pointed to ObamaCare’s contraception mandate — requiring insurance plans to cover all FDA-approved forms of birth control — and said that insurers may no longer cover the medication if it’s not prescribed by a doctor.
Dr. Mark DeFrancesco, president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, released a statement condemning Gardner’s bill shortly after he introduced it.
“Their bill does not do much to increase access to contraception — and, in fact, includes details that will take a giant step in the wrong direction,” DeFrancesco wrote.
“We cannot support a plan that creates one route to access at the expense of another, more helpful route,” he said.
Some conservatives, however, have said that the opposition from Planned Parenthood and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is actually money-related. Some have accused the groups of trying to avoid a potential scenario in which fewer women will need their services to get a prescription.
Gardner, who narrowly won his Senate race last fall, made over-the-counter contraception a key piece of his campaign against then-Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.).
Udall — who attacked his opponent so often on women’s issues that he earned the nickname, “Mark Uterus” — repeatedly accused Gardner of trying to ban access to contraception and abortions.
Weeks after Gardner was hit with his first critical ad on women’s issues, the Senate hopeful penned an op-ed in which he pledged to make birth control available without a doctor’s note.
Nanny State PING!
I never thought I'd agree with Planned Parenthood about anything, although needless to say our reasons are different.
Hormone levels need to be evaluated to determine the levels of progesterone in the pill.
“I never thought I’d agree with Planned Parenthood about anything, although needless to say our reasons are different.”
Actually, I think this is a good strategy. Planned Parenthood is the greater evil. This would help destroy that place.
Focus on the bigger picture :-). I know your convictions might lead you to disagree overall, but destroying PP is cutting the head off the snake when it comes to abortion.
Legislature like this would be a stride in that direction. It’s akin to giving people the right to choose to join a public sector union. It would help cripple that scummy organization.
“Their bill does not do much to increase access to contraception — and, in fact, includes details that will take a giant step in the wrong direction,” DeFrancesco wrote.
Eh??? But didn’t the Libs want this back when Sandra Fluck was agitating???? Over the Counter means increased access right????
Perhaps if Pelosi sponsored this legislation these groups would support it
Thank god the GOP-e was able to get behind a topic that would make us all proud. /s
The entire world is on fire and these gravy sucking pigs found a cause that would not interfere with their Lobbyist.
Boys and Girls it is all a fix. Forget what you were taught, watch “The Sopranos” again, that how your government rolls.
Asthma medications such as albuterol would better serve the public if made available over-the-counter. There’s no reason why a person should have to pay tribute to a physician to get an innocuous drug such as albuterol when he can get straight epinephrine, which has dangerous side-effects, without prescription.
What could go wrong? Very dumb idea.
Where can you get straight epinephrine without an RX. Never heard of that.
Well, actually, anyone can buy condoms over the counter. I reread the article and it very carefully neglects to say what kind of “birth control” they are talking about. Presumably this is actually an early abortion medication.
I can’t approve of that, or of any legislators who support it.
And arguing that it takes away money from Planned Parenthood is kind of like saying why don’t we set up our own abortion clinics, so we can take money from them?
You wrote “Presumably this is actually an early abortion medication.”
I also re-read the article very carefully reread the article. Can you say how you came to this conclusion? As you said, the article very carefully neglects to say what kind of “birth control” they are talking about.”
Let’s stick to the facts as presented and not just make up conclusions that have no basis in the data presented.
It’s easier to go to a doctor and gat a prescription than go to a pharmacy and buy over the counter. Sure. Right. Got it.
Know what? I don't think you can. You used to be able to get Primatene Mist over-the-counter, but I understand it's no longer available because of its devastating effects on the ozone layer. Just like salmeterol inhaler, which was replaced with a dry powder form where you have to physically suck the powder into your lungs, and is nowhere near as efficient as the aerosolized version that made me asthma-free until they took it off the market. I hate environmentalists. I wish they would just drop dead.
Uh, if something is going to help take business away from the Abortion-loving Planned Parenthood, I say we give it a shot.
Why is birth control criminalized? That is to say, why is illegal to buy and sell it without permission from the federal government? So decriminalize birth control. It defunds PP and gives the federal government one less point of leverage.
As to the morality of birth control, I do not wish to use the power of the federal government to police it. If a women wishes to screw up her life by making a poor choice that is her perogative and she should be free to do so.
Most OTC drugs are not covered by insurance. So yet another when. The net price to the insured consumer will increase.
Today, over the counter. Tomorrow, mandatory.
A quick glance at Ciontragestives (LINK)
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