Jindal: Oral Contraceptives Should Be Available Over the Counter

Women should be permitted to purchase oral contraceptives over the counter, says Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal.

While that position puts him at odds with some social conservatives, “contraception is a personal matter,” the potential presidential candidate writes in The Wall Street Journal.

“The government shouldn't be in the business of banning it or requiring a woman's employer to keep tabs on her use of it. If an insurance company or those purchasing insurance want to cover birth control, they should be free to do so. If a consumer wants to buy birth control on her own, she should be free to do so.”

A Republican stance against free access to birth control merely gives Democrats a political weapon, Jindal says. “As a conservative Republican, I believe that we have been stupid to let the Democrats demagogue the contraceptives issue and pretend, during debates about health-care insurance, that Republicans are somehow against birth control.”

While every adult should be able to purchase contraception, “anyone who has a religious objection . . . should not be forced by government healthcare edicts to purchase it for others,” he writes. “And parents who believe, as I do, that their teenage children shouldn't be involved with sex at all do not deserve ridicule.”

Jindal, who notes that he’s pro-life, says the healthcare reform law actually makes it more difficult to buy non-prescription contraceptives. That’s because it prohibits people from using their Health Savings Accounts to purchase over-the-counter medicine. “Health Savings Accounts should cover over-the-counter purchases, and those should include contraception,” he says.