On July 13, the United States Medicines Administration authorized the sale of a contraceptive pill without a prescription. In a context of restriction of the right to abortion, the American administration considers that the Opill pill is “safe and effective”.
It’s a small box with fairly soft colors, rather pastel. Pink, green, purple. It says “Take one pill at the same time each day.” Fairly classic advice for those who take the pill. But Opill has this particularity: from the beginning of 2024, you no longer need to go to your doctor, to your gynecologist. No need to pick up a prescription to get it. This is a first for the Americans.
By taking this decision, the FDA (Food and drug administration) seeks to avoid unwanted pregnancies as much as possible, especially among young girls and adolescents.
This pill will be available in pharmacies but also in supermarkets or on the internet.
A decision taken in a context of backsliding on the right to abortion
In the United States, this decision was taken as American women find it increasingly difficult to have abortions. Since the Supreme Court last year allowed states to decide for themselves whether or not abortion was allowed on their land. In Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri: in fourteen states, abortion has become prohibited. There are sometimes but not always exceptions in case of rape or incest. A quarter of women in the country are concerned according to the washington post. However, according to the American Medicines Agency, nearly half of women who become pregnant do not want to keep their babies.
Unwanted pregnancies are also more at risk, explains the FDA: premature deliveries, lack of prenatal care. And more complications also for the child, once born.
Opill, already on sale for a long time in the United States (but on prescription), is a contraceptive “safe and effective” says the agency, which rejects in passing the arguments of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States, for example, for whom issuing a pill without going through the advice of a doctor is not serious and even dangerous.
The manufacturer of Opill, Perrigo, who has not yet communicated a price, and this is a key point, just like the question of reimbursement, Perrigo therefore speaks “a giant leap for the empowerment of women”.