On May 9, 2010, the birth control pill, commonly known as a contraceptive turned 50 years old, marked by its approval by the FDA. The pill has changed the way women live, and most of all how women are viewed.
Woman is such a beautiful word, and a beautiful creature. Women are viewed as fragile, delicate and in need of protection. This has long been the argument for the history of America, and as a woman I am here to say, no more. We have been strapped into corsets, forced into the motherly role on classical television and now are unfairly being forced to speak to a health professional regarding a necessity of everyday life for most women: birth control.
Is the fear that making birth control accessible will somehow promote sexual activity in today’s youth?
Birth control is not only an effective form of contraceptive, but it is also a treatment for a common ovarian disease afflicting the lives of women between 1 in 10 and 1 in 20 women of childbearing age: Polycystic Ovarian Disease, or PCOS.
There are a couple of benefits of keeping birth control from becoming an over-the-counter drug. Although it is necessary to obtain a doctor’s prescription, birth control remains covered by insurance. This allows contraceptives to remain inexpensive under insurance plans. When drugs such as Claritin became accessible to the public, the price of the pills soared!
Another benefit arises by the necessary yearly appointment to the gynecologist in which full exams are performed; however, organizations such as womenshealth.gov now agree that women over 21 only need to get the life saving, cancer detecting Pap Smear every other year if the history of such tests are clean.
As an accounting major it has been drilled into me to recognize whether the benefits are greater than the cost. The benefit of a publicly accessible birth control pill does outweigh the cost to the consumer when insurance no longer partially pays. The cost to the consumer has yet to be seen as a long term cost, something that we have a hard time thinking about in our fast paced society.
The future costs of preventable unwanted pregnancies are so great that even thinking about the reduction of OTC birth control is unfathomable. Despite arguments against the pill, isn’t it time that women have control over their lives in a greater way? Isn’t it time to break out of one more binding chain of oppression? Birth control regulation is outdated, and it is time that we move into a future where a woman, at any age, for any reason, can decide to take control of her ovaries.
– Krissy Martinez is an Accounting junior at U. Houston.