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OTC Contraceptives: The Best Solution For All
Yesterday, my Facebook feed was filled with talk about the Hobby Lobby decision, with conservatives shouting hallelujahs and liberals wailing and rending their garments. I tried commenting on existing threads, but — this being Facebook and not Ricochet — the conversation predictably got nasty and stupid. Many of my conservative friends thought this incredibly narrow decision was a great victory for religious liberty and freedom of conscience (which is vastly overblown), while my lefty friends acted as if we had just re-passed the Comstock Laws (which is patently absurd).
This morning, I took a different tack and started my own thread. I posted a link to an excellent article on The Federalist that argued that making some forms of contraceptives available over-the-counter (OTC) is the best solution for all. I summarized the article in a way that (I hoped) would appeal widely:
To my amazement, the reaction was incredibly positive: some questions aside, everyone who commented thought this was a good idea, including my lefty friends. Conversation was civil, with none of the War On Women accusations that had characterized earlier threads.
This is an idea whose time may have come. Making oral progestin pills OTC has been suggested multiple times by libertarians, but also enjoys support from (conservative, Catholic) Gov. Bobby Jindal and even — as the Federalist article pointed out — from Vox, Ezra Klein’s new webzine. It solves the contentious issues surrounding access and conscience, without doing anyone harm.
Democrats are determined to keep pushing the War On Women meme, partly because they believe it, partly because it’s really good politics for them. This is a smart way to counterattack.
Published in General
Yes! Exactly.
With the exception of abortifacients, I see no reason why contraceptives shouldn’t be sold over-the-counter. And I’m as radically anti-abortion as they come.
An unfertilized egg isn’t a human being. Chemically excluding one’s potential for pregnancy is worlds apart from killing one’s unborn child in the early stages of life. Typical contraception should be legal, even if it is immoral.
I can see a number of hurdles here. First, I know at least some doctors think the pill is dangerous enough that it needs to be monitored. (Or maybe that is just their hook for getting women in for visits?) Second might be the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing them, the FDA, etc. In our current system, it isn’t as easy as someone just waving a magic wand and it’s legal.
That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t fight to get the process started.
The other issue is that the abortifacients would not necessarily be covered under your plan as they are separate drugs. And the left will always argue for more.
A final issue is that just because you make it over-the-counter does not mean that the drugs become any cheaper. People want their benefits to pay for it rather than their salary. And that is the real crux of the matter.
I wholeheartedly endorse this idea.
Arahant’s concerns are likely justified: for many activists, free contraception is at least as much about the “free” as the “contraception.” But frankly, I would rather have the pill be covered by EBT and force people to procure it themselves than have employers pay for it.
hah! There’s a semi-libertarian solution to just about everything, isn’t there? It is kind of funny that we can virtually answer all of these concerns with an appeal to de-regulation.
(I say semi- because I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard a good libertarian solution to foreign policy problems.)
I always thought the Libertarian solution was, “Kill ’em all, let Cod sort ’em out.”
It will not surprise you, Tom, to hear that I have concerns about minors buying these drugs. I don’t think they should be allowed to do so without their parents’ knowledge. Otherwise, I think it is a good idea.
Being self-employed, I’m having a really hard time understanding why anyone thinks that their employer should give them anything more than a job.
Tom mentioned this guy:
and it’s worth noting that this guy penned a WSJ op-ed promoting this idea back in 2012.
It doesn’t, but it may surprise you that I agree. Lots of states prohibit minors from purchasing certain kinds of OTC drugs*, and we (rightly) prohibit the sale of tobacco and alcohol to minors.
OTC contraceptives could — and probably should — be similarly restricted.
*Generally because they can be used either as recreational drugs or in order to make recreational drugs; I’ve no opinion on the specifics, but the general idea seems sound.
I’ve never heard a good libertarian solution to foreign policy problems either. Come to think of it, I’ve never heard any good solution to foreign policy problems.
And for asking women out to dinner. I know this Cuban gynecologist…
That’s because, aside from prohibiting wars of aggression and supporting free trade, libertarianism doesn’t have much to say about foreign policy. It is an ideology fundamentally concerned with the relationship of a citizen to the state.
So, only the hotties have all these follow-up visits?
So long as government dictates what insurance companies cover, we are paying for other people’s medications one way or another.
Bryan Caplan is slowly constructing an argument for pacifism as a libertarian philosophy. I’m sure most people will still disagree with it, but it will at least be a coherent well thought out “solution” other than categorical prohibition. He’s got two other books to finish on education and immigration before he gets around to it though.
(Not meaning to hijack your thread, Tom.)
Abortifacients will end up being included though. Or drugs that can easily be used as such even if it’s not the “package recommendation”. If it weren’t for that I’d be pretty firmly on board. As it is, still probably the least awful option.
You did surprise me, but pleasantly!
Personally, I’m an imperialist libertarian. The world isn’t safe for libertarians while there are statist governments. Therefore, until we turn every nation libertarian, the work is not finished. I am for an extremely well-armed pacifism in the sense of, “We won’t start anything, but if you do, we’ll be the ones to finish it.”
I don’t know. That sounds a bit fishy to me.
“Nuke them when they cross the border.”
Sorry Canada!
Do not make light of the almighty Cod. You do not want to be weighed in his scales in the afterlife and be found wanting.
Wait, isn’t the “morning-after pill” already available OTC? As this article says:
So you can buy the higher dose OTC (apparently w/o an age limit either) but you still need a prescription to get a lower dose? Oh the logic of bureaucracy…
Can anyone point me to a study about the effects of long-term birth control use? I know a number of women in their 30s who used bc for a long time and are now finding it very difficult to conceive. I seem to remember the medical recommendations being to not use it for more than 10 (?) years, and not after age 35, but that could be very old information.
Doesn’t the FDA already have plans for selling Plan B abortafacients OTC to minors at least 15 yo? I thought this was the case, but am too lazy to look it up.
I suspect that the difficulty of conceiving is simply related to the fact that the women are in their thirties. We have generally, as a society, somehow succumbed to a myth that female fertility remains steady throughout one’s thirties, which is not the case. As far as OCs and fertility go, there are some conditions for which oral contraceptives may be prescribed (endometriosis, particularly) with the intention of preserving future fertility
Here is a bit of a summary of both good and bad effects, although it is a science article, and not the actual studies behind it.
I notice that there are quite a few methods of birth control already available over the counter: condoms, vaginal film, spermicidal foam.
Do you know what a first violinist uses for birth control?
His personality.
Sorry if I am dumb finn again, but why any employer should pay for contraceptives for any reason? I my country even the state dont cover anything(I belive). Am I missing something?
In the US during WWII, wage and price controls were put in place. To get around these, the companies started offering different sorts of benefit packages so the wage wouldn’t go up, but the compensation would. This developed into corporations providing healthcare packages to their employees. Various government mandates, often decided on by vote-buying politicians, have determined that certain “healthcare” expenses have to be covered in these programs. Enough of the right people lobbied to get those items in. That is all.