November 2005, Washington, DC: Questions, opportunities, and concerns raised by the proposal of an OTC switch for oral contraceptives

On November 3, 2005, a group of women’s health advocates met at the Guttmacher Institute offices in Washington, DC to discuss the questions, opportunities, and concerns raised by the proposal of an OTC switch for oral contraceptives, particularly for women who are currently underserved by the health care system. The objectives of the meeting were to: broaden the range of communities weighing in on an oral contraceptive (OC) over-the-counter (OTC) switch and its potential impact; identify critical unanswered questions about the effect of an OTC switch and frame these questions for further research; and create an opportunity for participants to identify and determine whether and how their organizations might participate in effecting the change of making the OTC switch.

The Oral Contraceptives Over-the-Counter Working Group is now the Free the Pill coalition!

We are excited to expand our work under the Free the Pill umbrella and continue to leverage the expertise of coalition members to improve and expand equitable contraceptive access. Please visit the Free the Pill website to learn more about the coalition and how organizations and professionals can get involved.

As part of this change, the OCs OTC website has been archived and is being kept available as a historical resource to highlight the work that members of the OCs OTC Working Group have been engaged in since 2004 to build the evidence in support of OTC birth control pills in the United States. If you have any questions about the Free the Pill coalition and our work, please reach out.