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'It's Very Nuanced.' Local OBGYN Says There Are Pros And Cons To Over-the-counter Birth Control Pill

For the first time in the U.S., a birth control pill might soon be able to be purchased just like headache medicine.

SMYRNA, Tenn. (WTVF) — For the first time in the U.S., a birth control pill might soon be able to be purchased just like headache medicine.

OBGYN Dr. Damaris Olagundoye says there are pros and cons to allowing people to purchase it without a prescription.

"For me, personally, I think it's very nuanced and there are a lot of layers to it," said Dr. Damaris Olagundoye.

Dr. Olagundoye practices at the Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center in Smyrna.

On Wednesday, federal health advisers unanimously recommended that a progestin-only birth control pill be sold over-the-counter.

Dr. Olagundoye explained the barriers that would remove for women, especially those who are underinsured or uninsured.

"Some through insurance companies, some through gynecologist offices saying 'Hey, you need a pap smear first, or we need to see you first before we write it for you,'" Dr. Olagundoye said.

She cautioned approving the over-the-counter pill could also give women one less reason to go see their doctor.

"We're screening health conditions. If we don't make patients come in, I'm concerned whether or not they'll be screened for STDs, HIV, chlamydia, mammograms... A pap smear screening for cervical cancer," she said.

Right now, birth control pills require a prescription. They don't all contain the same hormones, so each isn't right for everyone. Combination birth controls contain estrogen and progestin. Progestin-only medication is usually considered to be lower-risk. Combination pills are more associated with blood clots.

The FDA could decide to approve an over-the-counter pill within the next three months.

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Mom Who Needed An Abortion Says She Was Told To 'sit In The Parking Lot' Until Her Cancerous Pregnancy Got Worse

Jaci Statton was in her first trimester of pregnancy and cooking in the kitchen with her 7-year-old daughter when she started feeling dizzy.

"I leaned over on my counter, looked down and I had blood soaked all the way down to my knees through my jeans," Statton, 25, tells TODAY.Com. "I called for my husband then ran to my bedroom and changed because I didn't want my kids to be scared."

She raced to the emergency room, where doctors told Statton she was miscarrying and sent her home.

The next day, she saw her OB-GYN.

"They did an ultrasound and we heard the heartbeat — we could see the baby on the screen — and she just looks at us and goes: 'You have to go to my other clinic, where they have better ultrasound machines," says Statton, a mother of three.

Another ultrasound revealed that Statton had a partial molar pregnancy, meaning her placenta had both regular and irregular tissue.

Molar pregnancies are never viable — a fetus cannot survive — and some can cause cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic. Statton's ultrasound showed that she had pre-cancerous cyst pockets in her uterus.

"The reason that I had bled is because one or two of them ruptured," Statton says.

"My doctor said: 'We can't talk about this here. We can't do anything here. You're going to be transferred so you can get help, but we can't help you here."

Statton and her husband had been celebrating her pregnancy, telling all their friends. They picked out a girl name and a boy name, and bought baby clothes, she said. "Everybody was really excited."

Now, her non-viable pregnancy was a personal tragedy that put her in the middle of Oklahoma's anti-abortion laws.

"It almost feels like a dream — like it's not real," Statton says. "I know it was me. I know I was there, but it's still... Not real."

'Doctors are really terrified'

Oklahoma has three separate, overlapping abortion bans that have effectively outlawed all abortions in the state and made it a felony to provide abortion care. There are limited exceptions to all three bans in cases where the life of the pregnant person is in danger or if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest and a police report has been filed.

Rabia Muqaddam, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, a non-profit, global organization that supports abortion access, says the separate laws all have "different definitions for medical emergency exemptions."

She adds that the exception language in all three bills is vague and uses "non-medical terminology to describe what the medical exemption is," causing what she calls a "climate of fear" among physicians.

"Doctors are really terrified that if they make a mistake they'll be sent to jail," Muqaddam says. "So both doctors and patients are being put in a horrible circumstance."

Statton was transferred from a Catholic hospital where her OB-GYN worked to another nearby hospital. TODAY.Com reached out to both hospitals for comment. The Catholic hospital did not respond.

She says the doctors at the second hospital, the University of Oklahoma medical center, would not give her an abortion because they could still detect a fetal heartbeat. She was then transferred to a connected children's hospital.

"They admitted me, did another ultrasound ... And the cancer pockets had basically took over my placenta and the area around the baby," Statton says. "A team of seven specialists came in ... They told us: 'We can't do anything. You may have two weeks to live. The baby won't even make it to two weeks. You need an abortion, but we can't touch you."

Asked if the doctors gave a reason why they couldn't treat her, Statton says: "Yes, the Oklahoma laws."

University of Oklahoma medical center provided this comment to TODAY.Com: "OU Health remains committed to providing the highest quality and compassionate care for women and children of all ages and stages of life. The healthcare we provide complies with state and federal laws along with healthcare regulatory and compliance standards. OU Health will continue to monitor state and federal legislation and ensure full alignment with the law while ensuring patients get the care they need."

Muqaddam, who has been practicing law since 2015, says the varying exception language in the state's three abortion bans is still causing confusion among physicians, leading them to wait longer to provide abortion care or refusing entirely.

A recent study of 34 Oklahoma hospitals conducted by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Physicians for Human Rights and Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice found that most hospitals can't explain their medical emergency abortion policies to patients.

'I'm going to lose you. I'm going to lose our baby'

After being told that she could possibly die because of the cancerous pregnancy, Statton says her husband put his head in his hands and started crying.

"He was like: 'Why won't they help you? I'm going to lose you. I'm going to lose our baby,'" she says.

Statton says doctors told her she could either travel to Kansas, Colorado or New Mexico for an abortion, or "sit in the parking lot" and wait to get worse.

"(The doctors) were upset also," she says. "They had to tell us: 'We can't keep you here anymore, we have to discharge you.'"

Statton drove 3.5 hours to get to Trust Women, a clinic that provides abortions in Wichita, Kansas. She says her husband and mother-in-law Googled hospitals along the way in case she started bleeding to death in the car.

Statton says after she arrived at the clinic she was "patted down by a security guard," who then went through her bag.

"I was like: 'Is this real life?" she says. "'Why am I going through airport-type security to go to an appointment?'"

In 2009, a doctor who practiced at Trust Women, Dr. George Tiller, was murdered by an anti-abortion activist. Tiller was one of the few doctors who provided abortions later in pregnancy and was often targeted by Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.

Statton was counseled by a clinic staff member — a requirement under Kansas state law.

"She asked: 'Are you sure you want to do this?' I told her I didn't have a choice and why: This was a partial molar pregnancy," Statton says. The woman showed her a pile of paperwork for other patients. "She said: 'Every single one of these pieces of paper are other women just like you who did not have a choice.'"

"Oddly, in a sad way, it made me feel better," she adds. "I wasn't the only one."

'I'm terrified to get pregnant again'

After her abortion, Statton says she left the clinic surrounded by anti-abortion advocates shouting and holding graphic signs.

"It really bothered my husband a lot — he has nightmares about it," she says. "He said he just wanted to yell at them: 'If you only knew, you wouldn't do this.'"

Now back in Oklahoma, Statton says she is preparing to have another surgery — the pre-cancerous tissue of her molar pregnancy has continued to grow and had displaced her post-abortion IUD.

"I have to have all that tissue removed, then I'm getting a tubal (ligation)," she says. "I'm terrified to get pregnant again."

Statton says she has decided to share her story because while she knows she doesn't "owe it to anyone else, I have two daughters I do owe it to."

"I'm the mom. I'm supposed to protect them — they're my responsibility," she adds. "I hope this is never a reality for either one of them. It has to change."

Sutton says the baby clothes she bought before learning her pregnancy was cancerous are still hanging in her closet.

This article was originally published on TODAY.Com

Originally published May 8, 2023 at 7:12 PM

Ob/Gyn Accused Of Photographing Genitalia; $15M To Settle Infant's Sleep Study Death

A total of 83 women have accused Indiana ob/gyn William David Moore, MD, of photographing their genitalia without their permission and behaving inappropriately during pelvic exams. (FOX 59)

The feds have accused interventional radiologist James McGuckin Jr., MD, of billing federal insurers for unnecessary invasive peripheral artery procedures, including angioplasty, atherectomy, and stenting of patients' legs. MedPage Today previously reported that McGuckin allegedly improperly performed vascular procedures to treat multiple sclerosis. The federal accusations against McGuckin were originally brought by Aaron Shiloh, MD, a physician whistleblower who worked for McGuckin, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Boston Children's Hospital will pay $15 million to settle allegations that a 6-month-old died after suffering a brain injury during a sleep study. (Boston.Com)

Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Joel Aronowitz, MD, has agreed to pay nearly $24 million to settle claims that he billed multiple times for single-use skin substitute products, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Charles Lieber, PhD, of Harvard University, was sentenced to time served (2 days) and 2 years of supervised release with 6 months of home confinement for lying to federal authorities about his ties to China's Thousand Talents Program, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts. Lieber will also pay a fine of $50,000 and $33,600 in restitution to the IRS.

Nurse Ben Hoshour alleges he was fired from Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon 6 days after he sent a frustrated email to coworkers about staffing levels. (The Lund Report)

Stanley Berry, MD, has sued Wayne State University in Detroit and three individuals, alleging he was retaliated against for raising concerns about racial bias in healthcare. (Detroit Free Press)

Gilead and the CDC are squaring off in federal court in Delaware this week over the patents to tenofovir/emtricitabine (Truvada) as HIV prevention therapy. The federal government is seeking more than $1 billion from the drugmaker for alleged patent infringements. (Reuters)

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced it has sued Mercy Health St. Mary's in Michigan for allegedly discriminating against an applicant by rescinding a job offer after the candidate refused to get a flu shot for religious reasons.

Detroit physician David Jankowski, DO, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted for unlawfully distributing opioids and other instances of healthcare fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Virginia doctor Kirsten Van Steenberg Ball, MD, has been accused of illegally distributing vast amounts of oxycodone, frequently without in-person visits. (News 5 WKRG)

Kristina Fiore leads MedPage's enterprise & investigative reporting team. She's been a medical journalist for more than a decade and her work has been recognized by Barlett & Steele, AHCJ, SABEW, and others. Send story tips to k.Fiore@medpagetoday.Com. Follow

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