We applaud a joint FDA advisory committee for its unanimous vote in assist of creating a contraception tablet accessible over-the-counter, the first ever in the United States and a historic development in contraceptive entry.
The work that led to this second per week in the past has been many years within the making and displays dedication to principled partnership and centering the voices of individuals most impacted by obstacles to contraception entry. Particularly, we should acknowledge the function the reproductive justice (RJ) motion has performed in guaranteeing we’re at all times centering the voices and wishes of those that our health-care system just isn’t serving and that this transformative change in contraception entry actually results in improved entry for all of us.
At Free the Pill, a coalition-driven campaign to teach and interact the general public in assist of OTC contraception capsules in america, we acknowledged the impression an OTC contraception tablet would have and the way it may revolutionize entry to contraception. And we knew that we wished to do issues in another way—we wished a distinct sort of change that prioritized entry for everybody.
In adopting an RJ framework, which was created by Black women, we embraced a human rights framework that calls for an intersectional strategy to race, gender, and socio-economic systemic inequities, specializing in the flexibility to forestall or finish a being pregnant, and the proper to dad or mum youngsters in protected environments the place they will thrive. We acknowledge an OTC contraception tablet is about company and self-determination, and so we constructed a coalition of RJ organizations, advocates, researchers, and regulatory specialists to assist in shifting a contraception tablet OTC, an necessary development that might remodel contraception entry, particularly for these dealing with essentially the most obstacles.
Collectively, we recognized important questions and carried out analysis to make the case for the curiosity in and advantages of an OTC change, and we dedicated to doing our work by means of a reproductive justice lens.
We additionally acknowledged {that a} important a part of adopting an RJ lens was reckoning with the historical past of the event of the tablet and sexual and reproductive well being extra broadly. We notice that we can’t speak about entry to contraception with out acknowledging the painful historical past of the contraception tablet. When contraception was being examined 60 years in the past, hundreds of Puerto Rican women have been enrolled in scientific trials and experimented on with out their consent.
These experiments are a stark reminder that in relation to development within the health-care subject, it’s usually Black and brown individuals whose our bodies are exploited for the sake of progress. At the moment, communities of colour nonetheless expertise structural racism within the health-care system and are disproportionately impacted by obstacles to contraception entry. And whereas the contraception tablet has been accessible for greater than 60 years, entry to it stays inequitable.
With each the historical past in thoughts and a reproductive justice framework put into observe, we constructed consensus among the many coalition that our work can be targeted on three key objectives: Any OTC contraception tablet wanted to be inexpensive, totally coated by insurance coverage, and accessible to individuals of all ages—core goals that continue to guide our work.
The FDA advisory committee’s suggestion {that a} contraception tablet be accessible over-the-counter stands in step with the many years of robust data on safety and effectiveness of contraception capsules, and we look ahead to the FDA following the committee’s suggestion and approving an over-the-counter contraception tablet.
The highly effective testimony that members of our coalition—together with reproductive justice advocates and younger individuals—gave through the open public listening to portion of the listening to was talked about by many on the committee as compelling and necessary to their vote to assist OTC entry. However we all know that our work isn’t achieved till each single one who wants contraceptive care can get it with out dealing with obstacles.
We’re dedicated to making sure that nobody who wants care is left behind due to how a lot cash they’ve, how outdated they’re, or the place they dwell. By way of our years of labor at Free the Tablet, in coalition with our RJ neighborhood and different companions, now we have proven that it’s potential to ascertain a distinct sort of Rx to OTC change—one which’s pushed by individuals’s wants whereas elevating their management and amplifying their voices. We’re proud to proceed this work to make sure OTC entry to a contraception tablet transforms entry for everybody.
