Bobby Jindal: Birth Control Should Be Over-The-Counter

[techs]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...th-control_n_2300461.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Bobby Jindal: Birth Control Should Be Over-The-Counter

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), whose name is often mentioned as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that calls for contraception to be made available over-the-counter.

If women could buy birth control without a prescription, he argues, employers would not have to pay for it against their moral objections, and Democrats could no longer accuse Republicans of being anti-birth control.

As a conservative Republican, I believe that we have been stupid to let the Democrats demagogue the contraceptives issue and pretend, during debates about health-care insurance, that Republicans are somehow against birth control. It's a disingenuous political argument they make.
As an unapologetic pro-life Republican, I also believe that every adult (18 years old and over) who wants contraception should be able to purchase it. But anyone who has a religious objection to contraception should not be forced by government health-care edicts to purchase it for others


The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently came to the same conclusion: that birth control is safe enough that it should not require a prescription. However, making contraception available over the counter would require women to pay for it out of pocket, whereas the Affordable Care Act currently requires that it be covered under most insurance plans with no co-pay.



I'm pretty surprised at this. The religious right will get their payback when Jindal runs for the Republican nomination in 2016

 

[Jaskalas]

.... wtf, women need a prescription for it?

I'm with Jindal... on this issue.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

sounds good to me

 

[techs]

.... wtf, women need a prescription for it?

I'm with Jindal... on this issue.

There can be serious complication using it so there has been at least some reason to make it prescription.
On the other hand its been used by tens of millions of women, if not hundreds world wide for many years.
I think the religious right has been a factor in it not becoming otc.

 

[LegendKiller]

There can be serious complication using it so there has been at least some reason to make it prescription.
On the other hand its been used by tens of millions of women, if not hundreds world wide for many years.
I think the religious right has been a factor in it not becoming otc.

I 100% agree with this.

I had a friend who died b/c of birth control and blood clots. People should be screened by a medical professional.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I think women should be able to take it and if there are any adverse side effects the manufacturers ought to be held blameless. Win/win.

 

[soundforbjt]

I think women should be able to take it and if there are any adverse side effects the manufacturers ought to be held blameless. Win/win.

win/win for the manufacturers , you mean...

They make the profit selling it and take no responsibilty for the results.
Nice backward way to stop BC use. You may die if you use our drug, and we are not responsible.

 

[UberNeuman]

I believe the morning-after this, the teabaggers will abort Mr. Jindal from their platform....

 

[soundforbjt]

I believe the morning-after this, the teabaggers will abort Mr. Jindal from their platform....

Maybe, but maybe he's just posturing for 2016. The election's over, time to get prepared for the next one.

 

[Smoblikat]

I 100% agree with this.

I had a friend who died b/c of birth control and blood clots. People should be screened by a medical professional.

If they are worried whats stopping them from seeing a medical professional anyway?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Is this news? I thought the argument was over whether medicaid should cover birth control and whether religious pharmacists/etc have the right to not sell contraceptives. I'm sure there's a few Republican crazies that think all birth control is the devil, but overall Jindal is strongly on the right-wing side of things here.

 

[Farang]

Why is this a political question? Are we also going to have Boehner and Obama sit down to negotiate a cure for cancer?

 

[sao123]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...th-control_n_2300461.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Bobby Jindal: Birth Control Should Be Over-The-Counter

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), whose name is often mentioned as a potential 2016 presidential candidate, penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that calls for contraception to be made available over-the-counter.

If women could buy birth control without a prescription, he argues, employers would not have to pay for it against their moral objections, and Democrats could no longer accuse Republicans of being anti-birth control.

As a conservative Republican, I believe that we have been stupid to let the Democrats demagogue the contraceptives issue and pretend, during debates about health-care insurance, that Republicans are somehow against birth control. It's a disingenuous political argument they make.
As an unapologetic pro-life Republican, I also believe that every adult (18 years old and over) who wants contraception should be able to purchase it. But anyone who has a religious objection to contraception should not be forced by government health-care edicts to purchase it for others


The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently came to the same conclusion: that birth control is safe enough that it should not require a prescription. However, making contraception available over the counter would require women to pay for it out of pocket, whereas the Affordable Care Act currently requires that it be covered under most insurance plans with no co-pay.



I'm pretty surprised at this. The religious right will get their payback when Jindal runs for the Republican nomination in 2016

I fail to understand your surprise... Jindal is correct...

The only major religious group still against Birth Control is the Catholics, which vote democrat by a 2-1 margin still.

 

[woolfe9999]

Maybe, but maybe he's just posturing for 2016. The election's over, time to get prepared for the next one.

Honestly I can't believe he is being considered for a 2016 run. Did you see his speech in response to Obama's address to Congress in '09? It wasn't just the substance that was bad. He comes across as weak and feckless. It wasn't just one bad speech either. You can't fix an inherent lack of charisma. I predict he goes nowhere.

 

[techs]

I fail to understand your surprise... Jindal is correct...

The only major religious group still against Birth Control is the Catholics, which vote democrat by a 2-1 margin still.

I haven't seen any polls but I am sure there is a substantial number of born agains who are against it.

btw I am old enough to remember my dad showing me an old package of condoms he had. They were labeled, Sold for the Prevention of Disease Only.
In order to sell condoms in my Dads day you couldn't do it to prevent contraception, only disease. (of course the "disease" was pregnancy)

 

[Thump553]

Is this news? I thought the argument was over whether medicaid should cover birth control and whether religious pharmacists/etc have the right to not sell contraceptives. I'm sure there's a few Republican crazies that think all birth control is the devil, but overall Jindal is strongly on the right-wing side of things here.

That's where it started but the GOP fringies took it a lot further. The Blunt Amendment (a GOP cornerstone piece) would have allowed your employer to drop any feature from medical coverage that somehow offended the employer's sensibilites whether or not it was related to birth control. Many state legislators have gone as far or further in mandating unnecessary medical expenses and procedures for legal care they find offensive. In Michigan the GOP is currently ramming through a bill which prohibits ALL insurers from providing abortion coverage.

Whether the issue is birth control, abortion, guns, prayer in school, etc. it is pretty safe to say that mainstream GOP thought is foursquare for freedom-so long as the views and thoughts are totally in line with current mainstream GOP doctrine. Our way or the highway.

Two years ago Jindal would have been labeled a RINO for saying this. Today it will be excused as his effort to rebrand the GOP in the public's mind.

 

[nehalem256]

I have wondered about whether this made sense as well. Does anyone have any real facts on the safety of BC pills compared to current drugs that are available OTC?

Especially since some people wanted to make the morning after pill available to 11 year olds one has to wonder if it is relatively safe. But maybe its dangerous effects only occur with prolonged use.

 

[nehalem256]

Many state legislators have gone as far or further in mandating unnecessary medical expenses and procedures for legal care they find offensive. In Michigan the GOP is currently ramming through a bill which prohibits ALL insurers from providing abortion coverage.

You mean mandating procedures for abortion. And it is because they consider abortion to be murder not "offensive".

Why do liberals seem to have such an allergy to using the word abortion?

Two years ago Jindal would have been labeled a RINO for saying this. Today it will be excused as his effort to rebrand the GOP in the public's mind.

Ironically I read about this on a liberal site, which claimed that one of the problems with OTC BC is that it wouldn't be covered by insurance. Because hey, we wouldn't want people to pay for their own sex lives now would we?

Sounds like Jindal might be sneakily supporting the old conservative beliefs about not forcing others to pay for your BC, but in a new re-branded way. Well played Jindal.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

win/win for the manufacturers , you mean...

They make the profit selling it and take no responsibilty for the results.
Nice backward way to stop BC use. You may die if you use our drug, and we are not responsible.

Then don't sell it OTC.

That's what I'm getting at. There can be severe consequences which are rare and often dependent on the physical state of the woman taking it. If someone chooses to ignore the warnings associated with the medication and can get it anyway, why should companies be held liable for the users ignorance?

If one is going to juggle on a ladder don't sue the ladder maker for your failure and injury for doing so.

 

[DrPizza]

Follow-up question to Jindal: if the employees/owner of the pharmacy objects to birth control, do they have to sell it?

In other words, is making it available over-the-counter actually going to make it less available?

 

[ichy]

The only major religious group still against Birth Control is the Catholics, which vote democrat by a 2-1 margin still.

The Catholic church is officially against birth control, but 99% of Catholics just ignore that rule. Hypocrisy at its finest.

 

[ichy]

Jindal's a smart guy who seems to have sold his soul in order to win over the ignorant evangelicals who comprise the Republican base. It's sad really, seeing someone like him suck up to creationists and convert to freaking Catholicism (his family is Hindu) in order to further his career.

 

[dmcowen674]

Bobby Jindal: Birth Control Should Be Over-The-Counter

He wants to be President so bad he is willing to spar with the Religious nuts in his Republican base.

I give him some credit but down to the core he is still a Republican nut on every other of the whacky Rights ways that they hate America.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Follow-up question to Jindal: if the employees/owner of the pharmacy objects to birth control, do they have to sell it?

In other words, is making it available over-the-counter actually going to make it less available?

That could be said of condoms. Supermarkets can put OCs next to it. As far as pharmacies go that would only apply to the few independents. Chains don't give a crap about pharmacists. We're cattle with a license.

 

[her209]

Why isn't Viagra over the counter?