In my knowledge it is a very finicky and dangerous to play around with medication, so an over the counter would be great!
Over-the-counter means it’s just on the shelves (as opposed to prescription-only, or even to behind-the-counter). You don’t have to interact with anyone except the cashier (or self-checkout machine).
I am torn on how I feel about it being freely available for purchase. On the one hand, in the current environment where lack of access to birth control can cause permanent detrimental effects on the trajectory of one’s life, and in which access to doctors who can dispense that medication is not readily available to everyone, the ability to simply walk in and purchase it off the shelf is very beneficial. The only benefit I see to having it be prescribed by a doctor is a (good) doctor forces you to listen to their paragraph about the potential harms and what side effects to watch out for. Mind you, if someone wants to educate themselves, they don’t need a doctor for that, as the information can be found freely online (or even in books at a library!); but, surely there will be plenty of people who don’t care to educate themselves on the potential dangers. Overall, I’m definitely on the side of this being a good decision, but to pretend it is entirely without risk is not accurate.
Over-the-counter means it’s just on the shelves (as opposed to prescription-only, or even to behind-the-counter). You don’t have to interact with anyone except the cashier (or self-checkout machine).
I am torn on how I feel about it being freely available for purchase. On the one hand, in the current environment where lack of access to birth control can cause permanent detrimental effects on the trajectory of one’s life, and in which access to doctors who can dispense that medication is not readily available to everyone, the ability to simply walk in and purchase it off the shelf is very beneficial. The only benefit I see to having it be prescribed by a doctor is a (good) doctor forces you to listen to their paragraph about the potential harms and what side effects to watch out for. Mind you, if someone wants to educate themselves, they don’t need a doctor for that, as the information can be found freely online (or even in books at a library!); but, surely there will be plenty of people who don’t care to educate themselves on the potential dangers. Overall, I’m definitely on the side of this being a good decision, but to pretend it is entirely without risk is not accurate.