No prescription? No problem. Birth control pills hit shelves.

For the first time in the United States, a birth control pill is available to women without a prescription, expanding access to people who have difficulty seeing a health care provider or choose not to. 

As states across the country grapple with abortion rights – whether protecting, restricting, or banning abortion – contraception exists in a less controversial space. But in the greater conversation about reproductive health care, advocates call this over-the-counter option crucial. 

“We still have health care deserts across the country,” says Cathren Cohen, staff attorney at the UCLA Law Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy. “And so being able to just go directly