Online orders to begin for first over-the-counter birth control pill in the US, drugmaker says
Consumers can start ordering Opill online Monday, and orders will be fulfilled within a day or two. So far, the product will be available at Opill.com and Amazon.
Opill has a suggested retail price for different supply options.
Earlier this month, the first shipments of Opill were sent to distributors, major drug stores, and pharmacies. However, it can take days to weeks before customers are able to get their hands on the product.
Some major retail pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, have said they will offer Opill once they receive their shipments.
Online access to Opill will benefit women who live in remote rural areas or who may not have access to transportation in order to travel to stores that carry it.
The more avenues through which people can access contraception, the more control they can have over their reproductive health and choices.
Last year, when the US Food and Drug Administration approved Opill for use without a prescription and with no age limit, public health experts applauded the move as a milestone for the expansion of access to contraception in the United States.
Now that the rollout has begun, however, there is some concern that states could place restrictions on that access.
No states have made such proposals or actions on restricting access to Opill, but the concern stems from the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, which reversed Roe v. Wade and overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.
When considering the debate around abortion access in the United States, if people really want to decrease unintended pregnancies, they should be supporting increased access to contraception.
Because the FDA approved Opill without an age restriction, people who have started menstruating and those going through perimenopause can purchase it.
Some states may try to enforce age restrictions on Opill.
Separately, when it comes to Plan B emergency contraception, there have been some attempts to enforce state-by-state differences in age restrictions, too.
But these examples have not set a precedent for what type of authority states may have to restrict access to an FDA-approved medication.
When it comes to Opill, many states also allow pharmacists to refuse to participate in ‘health care’ that they find morally objectionable. Legal approval and actual access are two distinct issues, with the latter influenced by a broader set of factors.