Senate Republicans’ Birth Control Bill Could Pave the Way for Over-the-Counter Contraception

Hey, so who’s ready to talk some more about
birth control, yeah? I’m sorry. I know. Me neither. But
in the endless “I know you are but what am I?” loop that
constitutes War On Women rhetoric, both Democrats and Republicans
just will not let this shit go. Last week, Sen. Patty Murray
(D-Wash.) introduced the “Protect
Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act,” which is
basically the “force all employers to cover contraceptives act.”
This week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) countered
with the “Preserving
Religious Freedom and a Woman’s Access to Contraception
Act.”

Two points to McConnell for managing to give his bill a
non-Orwellian name. But does McConnell’s
bill “literally do nothing,” as some have claimed? At a
press conference Tuesday, McConnell—who is cosponsoring the bill
with Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Deb Fischer
(R-Neb.)—described it as legislation “that says no employer can
block any employee from legal access to her FDA-approved
contraceptives” or any other FDA-approved drug or medical
device. 

This, of course, is already a thing that can’t happen. But in
the wake of
the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling—which said
certain employers didn’t have to adhere to the Obamacare
contraception mandate—many Democrats and liberals were framing the
matter as one of companies (or
Republicans, or the Supreme Court) denying women
access to contraception. McConnell’s bill is in part
spurred by these hyperbolic claims. 

But the more interesting—which is to say, less practically
useless—part of the bill is this bit: 

The Preserving Religious Freedom and a Woman’s Access to
Contraception Act … requests that the Food and Drug
Administration study whether prescription contraceptives could be
made available safely to adults without a prescription

Finally! There’s
no reason more forms of birth control shouldn’t be available
over-the-counter. And proposing this is a way to genuinely
take a stand for “women’s health” and “access to contraception.”
The Republican bill would also lift the Obamacare cap on flexible
spending accounts (FSAs) and restore the use of health savings
accounts and FSAs to cover over-the-counter drugs.