Making "The Pill" Over The Counter = Bad Idea

After reading this article, in regard to a group of doctors calling for making oral contraceptives available over the counter, I would argue that said group is greatly misinformed regarding oral contraceptives and here’s why.

These are real facts that are based on science and not on a guilt trip about how “[doctors] hold the birth-control prescription hostage for a Pap [smear]” or “paternalistic” behaviour on the Canadian state’s part.

Oral contraceptives are classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which forms part of the World Health Organization and the UN, as a Group 1 carcinogen. Group 1 means that “the agent is carcinogenic to humans”. Oral contraceptives are in the same list as nicotine (tobacco), asbestos, arsenic and mustard gas. Hardly enforces their claim that hormonal oral contraceptives are safe. This, they justify, is because they have been around for 50 years. I guess we should encourage smoking given the fact that people have been smoking tobacco for centuries, right?

Not only do the media and “family planning” groups neglect to mention this, they tend to discount it as being meaningless in the debate. Apparently, though, the benefits far outweigh the risks, right? Currently, one out of eight women who live to be 85 years of age will develop breast cancer, compared to one out of 14 in 1960, before “the pill” was available. Is it any wonder why the incidence rate of breast cancer is significantly higher in Western countries compared with countries where it is unavailable for various reasons (legislation, cost, etc.) or in countries where it has only recently become available?

Going on, if “the pill” goes over the counter, young girls will most likely begin using it at an earlier age. The idea to have the pill over the counter was also brought about in the United Kingdom in order to bring down the incidence of teenage pregnancy.  However, the pill requires daily compliance and according to Dr. Sarah Jarvis, in a study on women's habits for daily compliance with oral contraceptives, 

"47% missed one or more pills per cycle, and 22% missed two or more. These women have almost a threefold increase in unintended pregnancy compared with women who take the pill consistently, and teenagers are the group with the highest non-compliance."

Coupled this with the fact that “hormonal factors that increase the risk of breast cancer include conditions that may allow high levels of hormones to persist for long periods of time, such as beginning menstruation at an early age (before age 12), (…) having a first child after age 30 and not having any children at all,” according to the United States’ National Cancer Institute. All of these factors are more and more prevalent nowadays further increasing the risk of not only breast cancer, but also of cervical cancer.

It’s time the doctors involved with this movement, the media and feminists start fighting for true women's health issues and inform the public about the real risks of oral contraceptives. While they have been shown to decrease ovarian and endometrial cancer incidence, I believe the facts speak for themselves: the risks far outweigh the benefits.