As the GP pointed out, pap smears and pelvic exams are not medically necessary prerequisite to a birth control prescription and adding those procedures don't ma

As the GP pointed out, pap smears and pelvic exams are not medically necessary prerequisite to a birth control prescription and adding those procedures don't make prescribing birth control pills safer. They are an artificial barrier to access birth control. Pap smears (when done at the recommend intervals - most doctors overtest) are extremely beneficial screening tool and they save lives, but they have nothing to do with birth control - the purpose of a pap smear is to screen for cervical cancer. In fact, the current recommendation is to wait until a women turns 21 before starting pap smears, yet many (most?) women will require contraceptives before 21. It's also false that "birth control pills aren't really safe." - "potential to have serious side effects" is not even remotely the same thing as "not really safe." Oral contraceptives are not more dangerous than NSAIDs like ibuprofen. Both The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists [1] and The American Academy of Family Physicians [2] recommend over the counter access to oral contraceptives based on the availabile evidence [1] https://acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Gynecologic-Practice/Over-the-Counter-Access-to-Oral-Contraceptives https://acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Committe... [2] https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/otc-oral-contraceptives.html https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/all/otc-oral-contracepti...