Illinois AG Raoul urges FDA to approve over-the-counter birth control pill

CHICAGO - Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has joined a 21-state coalition urging the Food and Drug Administration to approve the country's first over-the-counter birth control pill.

The agency is currently reviewing an application for a medication named Opill.

If approved, people in need of birth control would be able to, for the first time ever, walk into a pharmacy and buy it without a prescription.

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"Women have the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions, including having access to safe, effective birth control," Raoul said. "In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, it is crucial that reproductive health care be available to all women who need it. That is why I am calling on the FDA to approve over-the-counter birth control."

The coalition of attorneys general says the approval would remove barriers that currently keep people from being able to access safe and timely reproductive care.