Ginnie Graham: Oklahoma women get win from Legislature with expanded birth control access
- Tulsa World
- Jun 6
- 4 min read
Allowing women to make fewer trips to the pharmacy doesn’t seem like a big win, but it is in Oklahoma when it’s for birth control.
Senate Bill 176 passed the Legislature and becomes a law on Nov. 1 without Gov. Kevin Stitt’s signature. It grants insurers that cover contraception the ability to cover six-month prescriptions on refills. A first-time prescription is still limited to three months.
It’s common for women to get a year’s approval from their doctors for routinely taken pregnancy prevention pills. Before this bill, they could only get the prescriptions filled in up to 90-day increments.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. Jo Anna Dossett, D-Tulsa, and Rep. Cindy Roe, R-Lindsay, who is also a nurse. The purpose is to support women, especially those who live in remote areas, in getting consistent access to medication. Some rural areas may require a 45-minute or hour drive to the closest pharmacy. Problems like an unreliable car might lead to delayed refills.
Also, it’s fair to treat women the same as men when it comes to birth control access. It’s not like men are limited in how many condoms can be purchased.
The legislation reflects the attitudes of Oklahomans toward birth control to prevent and plan pregnancies.
An Amber Integrated survey in February found that 89% of Oklahomans say birth control should be available and that 70% say they would be less likely to support a political candidate seeking to make contraception more difficult to get. In addition, 72% of Oklahomans say emergency birth control should be available; 67% believe that birth control saves taxpayer dollars; and 60% say contraception can help with the health of mothers and babies.
Oklahoma has for decades ranked high in teen births and currently is at No. 5 nationally for births among girls 15 to 19. The survey found that 85% of Oklahomans think sexually active teens should be able to get birth control.
It’s a good sign that so many in Oklahoma are embracing birth control for family planning and pregnancy prevention. Correct information about contraception is taking hold in the state.
Birth control is also common among U.S. women. KFF reported in November that 82% of women of reproductive age used some form of contraception within the past 12 months. The majority (85%) used it for pregnancy prevention, but 14% used contraception for other medical reasons.
“We’ve ended up in a culture war where the health care part is left out,” Bellis said. “Women’s health care doesn’t have to be this big, divisive thing. That’s stigmatizing and tiring. We’re now seeing more consensus that women’s health care access is a driver in health and economic outcomes. Lawmakers want healthy families and healthy babies. This gets us there.”
Contraception helps with family planning to space out babies for healthier births and for fertilization issues related to polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis. Some women take birth control for other reasons, such as perimenopause management, menstrual-related migraines, skin improvement, menstrual regulation and anemia prevention.
SB 176 covers contraceptives, which prevent a pregnancy. It doesn’t cover abortifacients, which terminate an active pregnancy.
Even with all this progress to fight contraception misinformation, some Republican Oklahoma lawmakers came up with some whoopers to tear down the bill.
Never underestimate the ridiculousness that Sen. Dusty Deevers of Elgin can say about women’s health care. On the Senate floor on March 26, he claimed that contraceptives shrink women’s brains by 60%, making them depressed, suicidal and angry, and cause the loss of their sex drives. He kept repeating that preventative birth control was the same as an abortion. It is not.
Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, admitted that he had “limited knowledge of contraceptives” but still stated that women would be harmed by “these so-called medications.” And he quoted a lot of Christian Scripture.
As Dossett reminded colleagues, no one is forcing women to take any form of birth control: “I still trust women and doctors not to take what they don’t want to take,” she said.
About 65% of women 18-47 years old use a form of birth control, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 14% take the pill, 10% use long-action reversible contraception and 8% rely on condoms. But 18% of women opt for tubal ligations or undergo a hysterectomy.
Choosing birth control is an intimate decision for a woman, based on her specific biology and lifestyle. Some women don’t like taking daily pills because they might forget. Some women opt for them because they’re easier to stop and start. Some women rely on an intrauterine device, and others like a vaginal ring or skin implant.
This isn’t new. The television sitcom “Seinfeld” had a 1995 episode (“The Sponge”) all about a woman’s loyalty to a certain birth control method.
“People take birth control for different reasons and choose different types. From the perspective of supporting families, family planning and economic stability, birth control is a resource many people are engaged in,” Bellis said.
The Senate passed SB 176 by a vote of 30-16, and the House approved it 65-25. Gov. Kevin Stitt took no action, and it became a law. That was a surprise, considering that Stitt went on a veto bender toward the end of the legislative session in an effort to get his tax cuts.
“In the context of this moment, Oklahoma passing a birth control access bill is remarkable,” Bellis said.
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