CNN
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US Food and Drug Administration advisers voted unanimously Wednesday to make the Opill birth control pill available without a prescription, saying the benefits outweigh the risks.
Two FDA advisory panels agreed that people would use Opill safely and effectively and said groups, including teenagers and people with limited literacy, could take the pill at the same time every day without the help of a worker. Of the health.
Assessors were asked to vote on whether people were likely to use the tablet correctly, so that the benefits outweighed the risks. Seventeen voted yes. Zero voted no or abstained.
If approved, this would be the first birth control pill available without a prescription in the United States.
“This would dramatically increase children’s ability to avoid unwanted pregnancies,” said University of Washington adviser Dr. Leslie Walker-Harding, adding that “it is also equally urgent that those with limited literacy be given the opportunity to take this medicine.”
Walker-Harding noted that Opill is as safe as many other drugs available on store shelves.
“The safety profile is so good that we would have to remove all other drugs from the market like Benadryl, ibuprofen, Tylenol, which cause deaths, and people can get any amount without supervision, and this is extremely safe. , much safer than those three drugs and misuse still doesn’t seem to be a problem,” he said.
The FDA does not have to follow the advice of its advisers, but it often does. He is expected to make a decision on whether to approve the over-the-counter pill this summer.
Opill is a “mini-pill” that uses only the hormone progestin.
The FDA has faced pressure from lawmakers and health care providers to allow Opill to be sold without a prescription.
Unintended pregnancy is a public health problem in the US, where nearly half of all pregnancies are unintended and the rates are especially high among low-income women, black women, and those who did not finish their high school.
In March 2022, 59 members of Congress wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf about over-the-counter birth control.
“This is a critical issue for reproductive health, rights and justice. Despite decades of proven safety and efficacy, people still face enormous barriers to obtaining birth control due to systemic inequities in our health care system,” the lawmakers wrote.
TO recent study showed that it has become more difficult for women to access general reproductive health care services, such as routine screening tests and birth control, in recent years.
About 45% of women experienced at least one barrier to accessing reproductive health care services in 2021, up 10% from 2017. Nearly 19% reported at least three barriers in 2021, up 16% than in 2017.
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