As everyone probably knows by now, Donald Trump tried to cater to the woman’s vote on the Dr OZ show by saying that birth control shouldn’t require a prescription.  This is a demonstration of the tone of much of his campaign, it sounds good until you think about it — then it stinks.  As with many other drugs, buying birth control over-the-counter means that insurance doesn’t pay for it and it becomes even more difficult to get for those without a lot of money.  

Oregon (the state that often channels Bernie Sanders through their legislative policy) has solved this problem.  The Democratic controlled legislature and governor passed the following policies last session:

• Birth control still requires a prescription, but that can be issued by a pharmacist who completes a training.  Women can then just fill out a simple questionnaire that is reviewed with them by the pharmacist to ensure that the method they choose is safe and appropriate for them.
• Insurance companies are required to cover birth control by both federal and state law.
• Women will get a three month supply the first time, then will get a year’s supply at a time.

There are still some who fall through the cracks because they don’t have insurance, but Oregon is aggressively trying to sign eligible people up for Medicaid.  

This is revolutionary and is being copied by other states.  I am looking forward to seeing the change in statistics on unwanted births and abortions with this change. 

I have two takeaways from this.  The first one is being echoed by many people — Donald’s policies are either undoable or not what they seem.  The second one — Work hard to get Democrats elected to all levels of government.  What we have done in Oregon can be replicated elsewhere.  We got here with a lot of work.  It was worth it!