Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pills Have Been Available in the U.S. for Over a Year. Here’s Who’s Using Them
CNN, August 18, 2025
About two years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill in the United States, a new study suggests that many people who may not have had access to contraception before are now using the over-the-counter option. More than a quarter – 26.2% – of people now using over-the-counter oral contraceptives were using no modern method of birth control before, according to the study published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. People relying on the over-the-counter birth control pill, which requires no prescription, are more likely to be uninsured, adolescents and living in rural areas, the study found.
Abortion Pill Fight Reaches Pharmacy Board Rooms
Axios, August 19, 2025
A year after the Supreme Court preserved abortion pill access, the fight over dispensing mifepristone is shifting from courtrooms to boardrooms as anti-abortion forces press pharmacy chains not to sell the drugs. The big picture: Costco last week said it won’t stock mifepristone at its more than 500 pharmacies. Conservative groups are pushing other pharmacies – including Walgreens and CVS, which offer the pills in states where abortion is legal – to follow suit. “We can effectuate real change by talking to these companies and engaging with them,” said Michael Ross, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom’s corporate engagement team. “Hopefully Costco will be a trendsetter.” But those efforts are making retail pharmacies a new ground zero in the fight over abortion access. Costco got swift criticism from one of its home-state senators, Washington Democrat Patty Murray, for accommodating “far-right extremists” she said were whipsawing the availability of basic care.
Trump’s Republican Trifecta Sets Up Massive Transfer of Tax Dollars From Reproductive Health Clinics to Unregulated Crisis Pregnancy Clinics
Ms. Magazine, August 18, 2025
Within days of the 2024 election, antiabortion leaders were calling on the incoming Trump administration to “defund” Planned Parenthood and redirect federal funds to “pro-life” pregnancy centers. As of this summer, all three Republican-dominated branches of our federal government are working in tandem to realize this mission: to replace the infrastructure of publicly funded, evidence-based reproductive healthcare with a network of unregulated pregnancy clinics (UPC) – also known as crisis pregnancy centers – nationwide. Together, the Trump administration, 119th Congress and the John Roberts-led Supreme Court are engineering a massive repurposing of federal tax dollars away from Planned Parenthood and the Title X family planning program, while also boosting direct federal funding streams, to further bankroll the $2 billion UPC industry and position it to replace reproductive health clinics in all 50 states.
Texas Threatens To Sue Organizations and Doctor for Increasing Abortion Pill Access
The Guardian, August 20, 2025
The heated U.S. war over abortion pills warmed up another degree on Wednesday, as the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, sent cease-and-desist letters to two organizations and an individual that he accused of mailing abortion pills to Texans or facilitating their shipment. Paxton threatened to sue if they do not stop their alleged activities. “These abortion drug organizations and radical activists are not above the law, and I have ordered the immediate end of this unlawful conduct,” Paxton said in a news release announcing the letters. The state of Texas bans virtually all abortions. Paxton sent the letters to Plan C, a website that provides information about how to obtain abortion pills; Her Safe Harbor, an organization that provides abortions through telemedicine; and Rémy Coeytaux, a doctor who has been accused of mailing abortion pills to a Texan.
As Trump Weighs I.V.F., Republicans Back New ‘Natural’ Approach to Infertility
The New York Times, August 21, 2025
Called “restorative reproductive medicine,” the concept addresses what proponents describe as the “root causes” of infertility, while leaving I.V.F. as a last resort. Today, an approach long confined to the medical fringe has unified Christian conservatives and proponents of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement – and is suddenly at the forefront of the fertility conversation in the Trump administration and the broader Republican Party. Legislation that would fund restorative reproductive medicine has been proposed by Republicans in both the Senate and the House … Practitioners treat reproductive health conditions but do not offer I.V.F., a posture that has prompted harsh criticism from leading medical associations.
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
Over the next decade the budget bill is projected to slash Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion, disproportionately affecting pregnant individuals, people with disabilities, seniors, and low-income families.
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Note: The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
