Since the fall of Roe, we have seen just how fragile our reproductive rights are in the United States.
Sixty-three years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first commercially produced birth control. Since then, we have seen countless contraceptive options come to market, and 99 percent of sexually active women report using some form of contraception. Most women don’t remember a time before birth control—it’s become a ubiquitous part of countless people’s lives.
I’m a women’s health nurse practitioner (NP) and educator at Emory University, teaching the next generation of NPs to care for individuals across the lifespan, including for the sexual and reproductive healthcare needs. It’s felt like whiplash for reproductive freedoms in this country.
On the one hand, this year we saw the first over-the-counter birth control, Opill, hit the shelves, breaking a massive barrier to access to contraception. This is what happens when we trust the FDA and medical professionals to do their job in ensuring people have access to the medicines and medical devices they need.
However, that trust in the FDA to do its job is eroding as courts and government officials influenced by far-right groups have decided they know what’s best for women, and that they know better than medical professionals.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, a case that is putting access to the FDA-approved drug mifepristone at risk. The far-right group, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, claimed they were concerned about the safety and efficacy of the drug as an abortifacient—but as a health practitioner, it was easy to see their argument had no basis.
I know how safe mifepristone is. Its safety has been evaluated four times just in the past 20 years by the FDA.
I got my start in my career providing abortion care during the pandemic, when telehealth was most people’s only access to care. Mifepristone was what we relied on.
I went to school for years to be able to make these kinds of decisions with my patients. Judges and politicians have no business weighing in on medical practices. Should the Court rule on the side of Alliance, this could open the floodgates to political oversight of medicine.
Alliance v. FDA and other cases like Idaho v. U.S., which could result in pregnant women being denied emergency care, that are popping up across the country mark an alarming trend of the politicization of medicine. We are seeing it now as access to abortion care is rapidly eroding and women are often forced to travel as much as 100 miles to obtain one. With it, countless women’s health clinics are closing their doors, but this is indicative of how quickly access to necessary medical care can be lost, like birth control.
State legislatures are starting to enshrine the right to contraception into law, as seen in constitutional amendments in Washington, D.C., California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
But other legislatures are seeing these efforts blocked.
- In April, Arizona Republicans prevented the vote or even debate of Arizona’s Right to Contraception Act that would “ensure that Arizonans’ reproductive healthcare decisions are kept between them and their doctors.” When asked about opposing future efforts to restrict access to contraception, Arizona state Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli—the No. 2 Republican in the state Senate—expressed that women wouldn’t need contraceptives if they weren’t so promiscuous.
- Even in my home state of Georgia, every Republican in our state Congress voted against a bill that would ensure Georgians are able to access contraceptives.
Access to contraceptives shouldn’t be a partisan issue, considering 93 percent of Republicans support birth control pills in “all or most cases.” Medical decisions should be left to medical professionals and their patients, plain and simple. The FDA has a crucial role in ensuring that the drugs on the market are safe and effective, and partisan beliefs have no business influencing this. If the overturning of Roe has taught us anything, it’s that we need to protect our rights while we still have them.
I’ve spent my career fighting to bring access to reproductive healthcare to women, especially in underserved communities. The availability of Opill is a huge step in the right direction, but we have to ensure that access to contraception is protected across the board as we continue to strive to protect reproductive freedoms in a post-Roe country.
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