Access to contraceptives remains an important public policy priority across the political spectrum. Whether you’re a progressive concerned with reproductive rights and the ability of women to control our own childbearing or a conservative concerned about minimizing the number of abortions and limiting costs to taxpayers from unplanned pregnancies, there are sound reasons why many politically active individuals view increasing access to hormonal contraceptives, especially, as a must-do—even as voters and legislators overall prioritize action on bigger-ticket, higher-profile items.
Image: Monik Markus, via Flickr
We also know now that improving access to condoms appears to be a less-than-viable substitute for increasing access to the Pill, the ring, or implants.
Yet years after the institution of Obamacare’s “free Pill” mandate, and after a legislative session that saw a number of states seek to improve access to the Pill by allowing women to get prescriptions direct from a pharmacist, access still remains a struggle for many of us, apparently—it seems— due to the hassle factor entailed.
But fear not: Where government has failed (or at least failed to deliver, 100 percent), the market is filling the void. Apps are cropping up all over to enable women to get prescriptions for hormonal contraceptives without having to haul themselves into the doctor—and thus sacrificing time, energy and money spent not just on the doctor’s visit itself, but also the bevy of tests that many of us find we are effectively mandated to have just to get a packet of Junel. From the New York Times:
At least six digital ventures, by private companies and nonprofits, including Planned Parenthood<, now provide prescriptions written by clinicians after women answer questions about their health online or by video. All prescribe birth control pills, and some prescribe patches, rings and morning-after pills. Some ship contraceptives directly to women’s doors.
Some accept insurance, including Medicaid for women with low incomes; some charge modest fees. Some send prescriptions to local pharmacies, where women can present their insurance information when picking up the contraceptives.
“At first I didn’t believe it,” said Susan Hashem, 24, an auditor in Dearborn, Mich., who wanted to restart birth control pills without missing work for a doctor’s appointment. She noticed an app called Lemonaid. For $15, a doctor reviews a woman’s medical information and sends a pill prescription to a local pharmacy.
“I thought it was just a setup to get money,” she said. But after she answered the health questions one evening, “a doctor actually contacted me after office hours,” and the next morning, she picked up three months’ worth of pills.
[…]
“This kind of access is certainly an improvement for some women who have access to the web and a smartphone,” said Dr. Nancy Stanwood, the chairwoman of the board of Physicians for Reproductive Health, who had been unaware of these services. “Look, if I can order something on Amazon and they’re going to drone-deliver it half an hour later to my house, of course we’re going to think of better ways for women to get birth control.”
Sara Montoya, 21, a student at California State University at Fullerton, said she felt uncomfortable visiting a doctor because at 15, she and her mother had asked her pediatrician for contraception and he had discouraged them, saying, “ ‘Oh, you don’t want to be doing that. You’re too young.’”
Recently, after a hiatus from birth control pills, she was unsure how to go about getting them again. “It’s so untalked about, like a taboo thing,” she said.
While in her geology class, Ms. Montoya checked out Nurx, a web-based app that offers prescriptions for various contraceptives, obtains them from pharmacies, and ships them to California and New York. The next day, a doctor from Nurx, which accepts insurance, messaged that her chosen brand was not covered by her plan and recommended alternatives. Within three days, her pills arrived.
Governments—federal, state and local—should still look at minimizing regulation that makes access to the Pill harder. Allowing over the counter sales very widely would be a good start, and ironically, it is one that is supported by a lot of pro-life conservatives while simultaneously being opposed by some consumer-safety worried progressives.
But the boom in these apps shows that whether or not government gets its act together, the private sector is moving forward—and women will benefit.
Liz Mair is the founder and President of Mair Strategies LLC, a communcations firm founded in 2011.