FDA Approves the First Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill in the United States

glamour.com:

battle has been won as the FDA votes to approve the United States' first over-the-counter birth control pill. The reported Thursday, July 13 that the US Food and Drug Administration had approved the once daily birth control pill Opill to be sold at pharmacies and online retailers without a prescription.

There are no age restrictions for sales. Perrigo, the company which manufactures Opill, will begin shipping the drug early next year.

This news comes after advisers for the FDA unanimously voted in support of making Opill available over the counter on Wednesday, May 10.

According to , the advisory panel agreed that consumers would be able to take the pill “safely and effectively” without a prescription, with 17 advisers voting in favor and zero abstaining or voting no following a . “The risks to women of an unintended pregnancy are much greater than any of the things we were discussing as risks of putting this pill out over-the-counter,” Katalin Roth, M.D, of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences said. “The history of women’s contraception is a struggle for women’s control over their reproduction, and we need to trust women.”Per the , Opill is a daily birth control pill, which is a form of contraceptive known to cause fewer side effects and health risks than medications that combine the hormone with estrogen.As the Republican party continues to in a post- world, there have been multiple recent victories in the battle for .