Just Give Us the Pill and No One Gets Hurt

Current Event Link: http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/20/15314352-birth-control-pills-shouldnt-need-prescription-docs-say?lite. 

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says that increasing access to women’s birth control will result in a huge number of unplanned pregnancies. Because of this, the ACOG is saying that birth control should be given over the counter. A patient should not need a prescription to get them. Some are worried that the side effects can run rampant without being monitored. Others also say that women who should not take the pill might do it anyway. Despite that, the ACOG believes that it is worth it to keep unintended pregnancies from happening. Obviously, if the drug is given over the counter the price will decrease and the pharmacy companies will lose money. The ACOG asks others to think about the outrageous costs that unintended pregnancies cause and that the reduction in price of the drug would help balance it out. This subject is important to us because it helps explain what we should be standing up for. This is a clear example of how the governmental institutions are taking advantage of the fact that we are women and our restricted our basic health rights. 

Women are being denied basic rights that men wouldn’t be denied. In the lectures from this week we are discussing how women’s reproductive rights are put on the back burner. This is a part of that androcentrism we have speaking of. There is a male centeredness in which men’s bodies are considered to be the norm. In fact, I bet that if men had to take birth control that it would be available over the counter already. Our society (whether we know it or not) is more concerned with what is happening to the male body than the women’s. Then there is medicalization in which normal functions of the body are seen as a disease. Menstruation is one example. Pregnancy is another. Condoms are proudly displayed in the drug store, but birth control you have to get over-the-counter. It is seen as something shameful when a woman is having sex and not necessarily when a man is having sex. It’s ridiculous.

All of this leads back to the cycles of oppression. Because it is ingrained in our head from the very start we do not even think about birth control only being given by a doctor. You just know that as a woman you need to do so. This has been well crafted by the governmental institutions, the media, everyday people, and the pharmaceutical company. Then we buy into it because our parents did before us. They are telling us that birth control is shameful and that if we need it we need to go consult a doctor. This is ridiculous. The reason women had to go to the doctor for birth control back in the day is that they wanted doctors to shame women into believing that they were sluts for taking the drug. Those days need to be long over. No more oppression needed here. 

It would be so simple to give us that freedom. When we pick up our condoms we can pick up our pill too. It’s funny that both sexes are supposedly responsible for prevention and yet they only provide the men with theirs over the counter. I realize that there are side effects and certain people can’t take the pill. Well okay, but there are tons of these warnings all over non-prescription drugs and that doesn’t stop them from selling them over-the-counter. After I read this article and thought about it, I just started getting angrier and angrier. We deserve equal health treatment free of shame as well. In conclusion, just give us the pill and no one gets hurt.

-Rachael Belcher