Over the Counter Birth Control Without a Prescription


The FDA is considering making a famous birth control pill which is available now only by prescription available over the counter. Women all over the world can buy it over the counter but the U.S. has succumbed to religious opposition. What a great step forward it would be to push religion aside and allow women more freedom to run their own lives.

Women demanding rights that should never have been taken away has come to be a worldwide and formidable political force. Most pundits conclude the legalization of abortion in, for example, Ireland and Chile happened mostly because women refuse to put up with bull$hit. Male clergy in the Catholic Church has prohibited Catholics from using birth control for many decades. Surveys find about 99% of Catholic couples use birth control. 

The only reason laws in the U.S. today require a prescription for some birth control medicine is religion. Churches lobby law makers, law makers acquiesce. Having been an elected official for a good share of my adult life, Elected officials are my colleagues. I have advice for my colleagues, "Get some backbone. Tell lobbyists from right wing denominations to take a hike."

In spite of religions, there is a lot of birth control used throughout the world. Fertility rates are dropping, even in communities and countries where leaders do not want this drop. It is happening because women, and many men, want to time and control the number of their children.   

I spent time recently with a relative, an academic, who shares my interest in demographic trends. We both are convinced worldwide fertility rates will continue to fall for quite a while into the future. Even if this turns out to be correct the current size of world population may be too large for our planet. And, even if people are practicing birth control, there is no reason to make acquiring it troublesome. 

Even if birth control is a sin, let's see more of it.

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