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An advisory panel at the Food and Drug Administration this month unanimously recommended that a contraceptive pill, Opill, be made available over the counter. The F.D.A. will decide this summer whether to follow this recommendation‌ — if it does, the United States will join over 100 other countries that have already approved oral contraceptives for use without a prescription. ‌(Eric Reinhart, 5/22)

While this decision is a promising step in the right direction, we urge the administration and pharmaceutical companies to carefully review individual costs associated with such a landmark approval. An individual using contraception may use the pill method for months to years, and thus consideration of the long-term monetary investment -- and potential to worsen existing disparities in healthcare -- cannot be overlooked. (Erin Fleurant, MD, and Melissa Simon, MD, MPH, 5/23)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering allowing birth control pills to be sold without a prescription. Some conservatives are raising predictable objections, but others appear to grasp the obvious: If the anti-abortion-rights movement truly is motivated solely by a desire to prevent abortions, without a broader agenda of imposing religious dogma or subjugating women, its adherents should be the loudest voices for making reliable birth control as easily accessible as possible. (5/21)