This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) faced a decision to throw women a lifeline or leave their health and future at risk. For the first time, the FDA held a hearing to consider making a birth control pill available over the counter and an option for every person of reproductive age in America.
The panel of advisers to the FDA voted unanimously to recommend that the contraceptive Opill be available without a prescription. Perrigo, the pharmaceutical company that created Opill, submitted its application for over-the-counter use just weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
For Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, this week’s FDA hearing to consider this application cannot come a moment too soon.
AAPI women are more likely to use cheaper, less effective methods of birth control than other races and ethnicities. For instance, a 28-year study found that only 57 percent of Asian women have used birth control pills, compared to three-quarters of Black women and Latina women and 89 percent of white women. These disparities are no surprise when we consider the systemic and cultural barriers AAPI women face in accessing reproductive health care.
AAPI women are overrepresented among immigrants and frontline and low-wage workers, who are less likely than most to have health insurance or be able to afford preventative care. But even when we are able to access care, the interplay of cultural stigmas and language barriers can make having a discussion about reproductive care difficult and unmanageable.
In many ways, AAPI youth bear the brunt of these issues. Cultural and language dissonance within families, particularly between AAPI children and their immigrant parents, make conversations about sexual health rare and often fraught. Studies have also found that Asian American teenagers are less likely than other groups to use condoms or prescription contraceptives.
These data mirror the lived experiences of many AAPI Americans. Growing…
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