USCCB committee chairman warns against over-the-counter sale of birth control pill (USCCB)

“It is concerning that the FDA has a recommendation before it to approve over-the-counter hormonal contraception when there is strong evidence of the many harmful risks to women’s health,” said Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester (MN), chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, after an FDA panel backed over-the-counter sale of the birth control pill Opill.

“Fertility is a gift, not a disease,” Bishop Barron added. “Contraceptives exist to suppress the healthy functions of human reproduction. The mounting evidence of the many harmful side effects of hormonal contraceptives demonstrates that they are not good medicine.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ statement noted that in 2022, the FDA acknowledged “the risks of breast cancer with hormonal contraceptive use, and quietly changed the safety protocols for prescribing, as well as information that should be in the inserts when the prescription is dispensed to patients.”