Whether you want to find a date or avoid a pothole, it only takes the click of a button. What if it became the norm for women to order birth control prescriptions online? Medical ethicist Art Caplan spoke to Boston Public Radio Wednesday about the burgeoning technology that could change the trajectory of women’s health care in the United States.
“This is great. I love this. I think this is the future. I think we’re going to see a lot more health care delivered, administered, handled through the Internet,” Caplan said. “You don’t really have to go in for a prescription from your doctor to get birth control pills. If somebody has your history and knows all about you and knows you don’t have any risk factors, they can prescribe them for you online; we’ve seen it done with some other drugs over the years, and it could be done here, and I think that’s what’s going to happen more and more.”
Women’s health has become a highly politicized issue, making it hard for many women to access contraceptives and other controversial care. Online prescriptions, facilitated by visual software programs, could dissolve the geographical, monetary, and emotional boundaries, like doctor’s office co-pays and stigma, that preclude women from obtaining contraceptives. Since abortion is linked to contraceptive use, there are major implications for that debate as well.
“I think that’s the future of both contraception and to some extent, even, abortion,” Caplan said. “I think we’re going to move away from the surgical abortion to the people who use pills and the fight will then have to change to one of ‘is it right or wrong,’ to use that pill, rather than trying to close clinics or legislate them out of existence.”
For the full interview with Art Caplan, click on the audio link above.
