Tag Archives: contraception

In ‘Transformative Victory’ for Reproductive Justice, FDA Approves Over-the-Counter Birth Control

If the pill is made affordable and covered by insurance, said one advocate, the approval has the potential to be “a game-changer for communities impacted by systemic health inequities.”

By Julia Conley. Published 7-13-2023 by Common Dreams

The Food and Drug Administration approved the United States’ first over-the-counter birth control pill on July 13, 2023. (Photo: UC Irvine/flickr/cc)

“Groundbreaking,” “monumental,” and “transformative” were just a few of the words rights advocates used on Thursday to describe the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s long-awaited approval of over-the-counter use of Opill, a birth control pill that was approved for prescription use five decades ago.

The approval could revolutionize access to contraception for young people, low-income people, and others in a country where nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended, said Free the Pill, a coalition of more than 200 reproductive justice groups and advocates who have been campaigning for over-the-counter (OTC) access to birth control for nearly two decades.

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Privacy isn’t in the Constitution – but it’s everywhere in constitutional law

Who’s allowed to watch what you do and say?
Shannon Fagan/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Scott Skinner-Thompson, University of Colorado Boulder

Almost all American adults – including parents, medical patients and people who are sexually active – regularly exercise their right to privacy, even if they don’t know it.

Privacy is not specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. But for half a century, the Supreme Court has recognized it as an outgrowth of protections for individual liberty. As I have studied in my research on constitutional privacy rights, this implied right to privacy is the source of many of the nation’s most cherished, contentious and commonly used rights – including the right to have an abortion – until the court’s June 24, 2022, ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson. Continue reading

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The Scramble for Women’s Health-Care Coverage in the Time of Trump

The time to obtain contraceptives is now.

By . Published 2-6-2017 by YES! Magazine

This is a Mirena IUD, a form of long-lasting reversible birth control. Photo: Sarahmirk (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0] via Wikimedia Commons

As uncertainty looms for millions of women about the future of birth control access under the new Trump administration and Congress, patients are speaking out, and states are stepping up.

Congress’s promise to eliminate the Affordable Care Act would wipe out the mandate that insurance providers fully cover birth control. However, family planning advocates are mobilizing patients to contact their representatives, and a handful of states are working to guarantee birth control coverage regardless of what will happen to the ACA. Continue reading

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