{"id":115194,"date":"2023-07-17T09:42:57","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T13:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/?p=115194"},"modified":"2023-07-17T09:43:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T13:43:51","slug":"a-new-chapter-in-birth-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2023\/07\/17\/a-new-chapter-in-birth-control\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Chapter in Birth Control"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><\/strong>Last week, the FDA approved Opill as the first over-the-counter hormonal<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2023\/07\/katharine-OConnell-White.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot of Katharine O'Connell White, dark shoulder length curly dark brown hair, fair complexion, dark eye glasses smiling into camera\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-115196\" width=\"180\" height=\"168\" \/>The FDA\u2019s approval of the first over-the-counter birth control pill in the United States could be a revolutionary change in birth control and reproductive health, says <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/profiles.bu.edu\/Katharine.White\" target=\"_blank\">Katharine O\u2019Connell White<\/a>, MD, MPH, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology,<\/p>\n<p>White, who is also vice chair of academics and associate director of the complex family planning fellowship at Boston Medical Center, says she felt \u201cjubilation and glee\u201d at hearing news of the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/health\/health-news\/hormonal-birth-control-fda-nonprescription-contraceptive-pill-rcna93958\" target=\"_blank\">Food and Drug Administration\u2019s approval of Opill<\/a>, a hormonal birth control pill, on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter a year during which there has been very little good news about people\u2019s reproductive health, this is the first solid win in a long time,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd it finally puts the United States on par with <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/freethepill.org\/otc-access-world-map\" target=\"_blank\">most other countries in the world<\/a>, where people have always had access to pills without a prescription.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The news was received with support from almost every major reproductive health organization in the country, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.<\/p>\n<p>The FDA\u2019s approval comes amid myriad legal battles over reproductive rights\u2014and almost exactly a year after the Supreme Court overturned <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>, rescinding the right to abortion nationally.<\/p>\n<p>Perrigo Company, which manufactures the pill, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/07\/13\/health\/otc-birth-control-pill.html\" target=\"_blank\">says<\/a> it will likely be available in stores and from online retailers in the United States in early 2024.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2023\/fda-approved-otc-birth-control-pill\/?utm_campaign=bu_today&amp;utm_source=email_20230717&amp;utm_medium=intrograph&amp;utm_content=health\">BU Today<\/a> spoke with White about the safety and effectiveness of Opill, as well as questions that still remain about its rollout and accessibility. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2023\/fda-approved-otc-birth-control-pill\/?utm_campaign=bu_today&amp;utm_source=email_20230717&amp;utm_medium=intrograph&amp;utm_content=health\">Learn more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BU Today spoke with Katharine O\u2019Connell White, MD, MPH, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, about how Opill, the first over-the-counter hormonal birth control, could revolutionize US reproductive healthcare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115194"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115198,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115194\/revisions\/115198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}