The Missed Opportunity of OTC
Contributed by Miriam Perez
The fight to put emergency contraception over the counter was a huge one, and should be considered a victory for the women’s rights movement. Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton can be credited with the political maneuvering that forced the FDA to consider the proposal from the makers of Plan B, which had been stalled for years, for seemingly political reasons. For a tool that works best when it can be administered quickly, it makes entire sense to remove each and every barrier to its access.
Unfortunately, there is still a downside to making EC accessible simply through a pharmacist. As Priscilla and Susan have pointed out — the issues change drastically when we’re talking about the more marginalized populations — low-income women, young women, women of color, immigrant women. The downside I’m talking about here applies to women who don’t have regular access to gynecological health care. This could be a woman with no health insurance, a young woman who is afraid to tell their parents she is sexually active, or a woman who can’t find a provider who speaks her language. Or it could be a woman who doesn’t know or understand the importance of routine gynecological care. For these women, each visit with a provider is crucial. Pap smears to test for pre-cancerous cells on the cervix, routine STI testing, long term birth control, not to mention general discussions about sexual and reproductive health are all necessary to keep her healthy and well-informed.
Logically, a woman going to purchase EC has most likely just had unprotected sex. Not only is she at risk for an unintended pregnancy, but also STI exposure. She also might need to have a conversation to re-evaluate her birth control method. When a woman no longer has to see a provider in this crucial moment, are we missing an opportunity for her to interact with a doctor and receive important medical care?
These issues are only pertinent in a broken health care system. Ideally, everyone would have access to affordable routine medical care, a provider that they trusted and visited regularly, with a focus on prevention of long term health problems. Then if a woman needed EC, she could go to a pharmacy and we wouldn’t have to worry that she may be missing an opportunity to receive much needed medical care. As reproductive health and rights advocates, we need to keep these issues in mind, and push even harder for services that allow all women to access regular gynecological care — government assistance programs, community health centers and clinics that provide services at low cost. We have to share the message that regular health care is crucial, and we won’t have a healthy community without it.
Miriam Perez is the Advocacy Coordinator at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health. She also blogs at Radical Doula.
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