Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
The Governor of Louisiana makes the case in today's Wall Street Journal:
Let's ask the question: Why do women have to go see a doctor before they buy birth control? There are two answers. First, because big government says they should, even though requiring a doctor visit to get a drug that research shows is safe helps drive up health-care costs. Second, because big pharmaceutical companies benefit from it. They know that prices would be driven down if the companies had to compete in the marketplace once their contraceptives were sold over the counter...
...Over-the-counter contraception would be easier to obtain if not for some unfortunate aspects of President Obama's health-care law. One of the most egregious elements of that law is the hampering of Health Savings Accounts, which have become increasingly popular in recent years because they give Americans choices in how to spend their money on health care. By removing the ability of citizens to use their HSAs to purchase over-the-counter medicine tax-free if they don't have a doctor's prescription, President Obama hurt many middle-class families who counted on using their HSA dollars every flu season to take care of their children. Health Savings Accounts should cover over-the-counter purchases, and those should include contraception.
It's time to put purchasing power back in the hands of consumers—not employers, not pharmaceutical companies, and not bureaucrats in Washington. The great thing about America is that power doesn't come from government, but from people. It's time to reclaim that power. It's time to stop government from dividing people or insulting deeply held religious beliefs, and return the country to the path that has always made it great—one where Americans respect and value their fellow citizens, no matter their creed...
Now this is refreshing. A little political savvy turns these wedge issues back on the Democrats. Make it about personal liberty. It's also provocative and gets the mind-numb mainstream media interested.
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Comments:
Sep '12
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
While you're at it, make contact lenses OTC as well, will you?
Feb '12
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
And basic antidepressants like sertraline ... I can afford my meds, but not the permission slip for them.
Sep '12
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
But birth control is evil!!! Evil, I tell you, EVIL!!!!!!
Mar '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Truly a good idea, financially and politically. Which means it has zero chance of becoming reality.
Mar '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Since a concept this sensible is certainly too radical for the American public, perhaps there could be a medical marijuana-style compromise: a woman only needs to get a prescription from a doctor once in order to buy the pill as much as she wants over her lifetime.
Feb '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Ha ha. How funny.
I don't think Bobby Jindal likes birth control -- I know that I don't.
What I hate just as much, however, is the way government is meddling in every aspect of our lives.
I am perfectly willing to hash out in the court of public opinion and discourse why I don't like contraception, and I do my best to share alternatives with other people by teaching natural family planning with my husband. I do think contraception harms human dignity, and it can have harmful side effects that people should know about.
I don't believe it is the government's job to tell citizens what to do or how to live their lives, though.
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Yes! I have a suspicion that Jindal is going to surprise us all. I certainly hope so.
And I especially agree with this: "A little political savviness, turn these wedge issues back on the Dems. Make it about personal liberty. It's also provocative and gets the mind-numb MSM interested."
Sep '10
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Rob Long: Yes! I have a suspicion that Jindal is going to surprise us all. I certainly hope so.
And I especially agree with this: "A little political savviness, turn these wedge issues back on the Dems. Make it about personal liberty. It's also provocative and gets the mind-numb MSM interested." · 5 hours ago
There is the delicious irony in this scenario (the moral implications of which I haven't yet thought through) of millions of women banding together in class action lawsuits against Big Pharma and possibly Big Doc (DocJay feel free to jump in) when they ascribe health problems to the use/misuse/overuse of those same pills.
And that's no fluke.
Sep '10
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Over the counter nuclear weapons might discourage regimes like North Korea as well.
Oh, wait. Wrong thread. My bad.
May '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Pseudodionysius: Over the counter nuclear weapons might discourage regimes like North Korea as well.
Oh, wait. Wrong thread. My bad. · 1 hour ago
He's here all week folks!
May '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Jindal is now officially this social conservative's current favorite in 2016. This is genius.
Sep '12
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
And Jindal fires the first shot off the bow at showing that the true extremists in American society is the Left. Let's see some more of this!
Aug '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
I have always thought this about many medicines. It isn't just birth control that should be available over the counter.
Nov '10
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
I love Bobby Jindal. He was actually my first choice for Romney's running mate. I hope we continue to see more of him.
Apr '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Jindal is surprising me with this. I was a little taken aback by his attack on Romney right after the election, which I thought was in poor taste. This move shows some real political savvy, a rare trait in the Republican party as of late. Taking the "war on women" meme and showing who truly is restricting women's access, though I am sure some on the right will attack him for catering or now being a godless heathen. He does have some work to do to step his game up since he does have the SotU response hanging over his head, though by 2016, that will seem like a lifetime ago.
Aug '12
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
I am ready to print my Jindal/Rubio 2016 campaign materials, but I was ready to print my Jindal/Rubio 2012 materials last year, too.
Jan '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Mr. President, Gov. Jindal will see you wedge issue and raise you personal liberty.
Edited on December 14, 2012 at 4:42pmJul '11
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Just to challenge this a bit, what about the fact that many of these medications are powerful hormones? Is there not a reason to be concerned for the health of the women who use them? I would think that a doctors opinion would be essential to be sure that whichever birth control method they use wouldn't be harmful to them.
-E
Jun '10
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
Add that marijuana users seeking legalization through the "medical marijuana" angle was ridiculous. No one sought to repeal prohibition by making it necessary to go sit in a doctors office for half a day, pay for the writ, then go get the bottle. There is just something humiliating and wrong with pretending to be sick, going though deliberate bureaur0cratic steps to lie about it, and having that lie permanently recorded as a condition to get the weed. It is worse than just breaking the stupid law in terms of its delegitimizing the user.
Sep '12
Re: Bobby Jindal: Make Birth Control Over the Counter
In answer to CandE, I think it's possible that birth control and some other drugs like it fall into a heretofore non-existent middle ground between pure over the counter medicines and drugs that require constant management and oversight by a doctor. The misguided war on meth production which has many cold remedies under lock and key might provide a useful path for how to accomplish that, with birth control and other well tested yet strong drugs. Make birth control pills available without a doctor but can be sold only after consultation with a pharmacist, or something like that.
But if we cannot have a middle ground of some kind, I think I prefer freedom to keeping them prescription only.