First Company Applies to Make Birth Control Pill Available Without a Prescription in the U.S.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and set off a cascade of abortion bans around the country, access to contraception has taken on increased importance. To get birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives in the U.S., patients still need a prescription. But now birth control pills are one step closer to being available over the counter. HRA Pharma, a French drugmaker, has submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first over-the-counter birth control pill in the U.S. “We’re very proud of being the first company to submit the first-ever application to the FDA for daily birth control over the counter, and obviously it’s coming at the right moment,” says Frédérique Welgryn, chief strategic operations and innovation officer at HRA Pharma. Although the company had been working on its application for years before the Supreme Court’s decision, the announcement is “a bit of light in this very dark moment” for reproductive rights in the U.S., Welgryn says. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Nearly half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, and research shows that nearly one third of women who have tried to access prescription birth control faced obstacles. If HRA Pharma’s application is approved, reproductive rights activists and researchers say an over-the-counter pill would remove barriers to health care and expand access to birth control throughout ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Health Care News uspoliticspolicy Source Type: news