No, you did not fall through the looking glass. A half-dozen GOP Senators led by Cory Gardner indeed want to force makers of contraceptive pills to file a request for over-the-counter status with the FDA.
That some hard social conservatives would be opposed is a given, but that the federally subsidizd abortion mill known as Planned Parenthood would do so seems counterintuitive — except of course to inveterate cynics like myself.
Leave it to Steven Den Beste, the retired “USS Clueless” blogger, to hit the nail on the head:
It’s not ideology, it’s rent seeking. PP’s doctors are major sources of doctor prescriptions for birth control pills, and PP gets paid for every prescription. If birth control pills become OTC, PP will lose that revenue
Commenter “Wildoates” clarifies:
it’s not about actually providing conception control to women, it’s about being the gatekeeper to providing conception control (and other so-called women’s health issues) to women, and the many dollars that follow from that. If you own the only ferry on that particular river, you get the tolls. People start building bridges upstream and you’re doomed.
I never was in any doubt as to what PP et al. really were — it is still amusing to see them so blatantly act like it though
Spin, strangeness, and charm 