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Context Women having abortions are at high risk for future unintended pregnancy, and removing the prescription requirement for oral contraceptives may increase continuation and adoption of this effective method. Methods A survey fielded from May to July 2011 collected information from 651 women aged 15-46 seeking abortion services at six urban clinics from across the United States. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses were conducted to estimate women's interest in over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives. Results Eighty-one percent of respondents supported over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives; while 42% of women planned to use the pill after their abortion, 61% said they would likely use this method if it were available over the counter. Thirty-three percent of women who planned to use no contraceptive following their abortion said they would use an over-the-counter pill, as did 38% who planned to use condoms afterward. In multivariable analysis, several subgroups had increased odds of likely over-the-counter use: women who were older than 19 (odds ratios, 1.8 for those aged 20-29 and 1.6 for those aged 30-46), were uninsured (1.5), had ever used the pill (1.4), had had difficulty obtaining a prescription refill for hormonal contraceptives (2.7) or planned to use the pill postabortion (13.0). By contrast, compared with white respondents, women of other races or ethnicities were less likely to say they would use over-the-counter pills (0.4-0.7). Conclusions Interest in a hypothetical over-the-counter oral contraceptive was high in this sample, and this delivery model has the potential to reduce unintended pregnancy among abortion patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To model the impacts of out-of-pocket cost of an over-the-counter (OTC) progestin-only pill on use and associated unintended pregnancy among U.S. women. Using data from a 2015 nationally representative survey of 2,539 U.S. women aged 15 to 44 assessing interest in using an OTC progestin-only pill, we used discrete survival analysis and a Markov model to analyze women's likelihood of using of an OTC pill at different price points and by sociodemographic characteristics. We modeled the impact of product price on the potential total number of U.S. users and on unintended pregnancies in 1 year among adult women at risk of unintended pregnancy. In a model assuming no out-of-pocket costs, more than 12.5 million adults and 1.75 million teens reported likely use of an OTC progestin-only pill if available. Among adults, this resulted in an estimated 8% decrease in unintended pregnancy in 1 year. Adult and teen women on average were willing to pay $15 and $10, respectively, resulting in 7.1 million adult and 1.3 million teen users and an estimated 5% decrease in unintended pregnancy among adults. At low and no out-of-pocket cost, a large population of women in the United States might likely use an OTC progestin-only pill. A low retail price and insurance coverage are necessary to provide equitable access to this method for low-income populations across the United States, fill current gaps in contraceptive access, and potentially decrease unintended pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]