Recently, some conservatives have come out in support of expanding access to birth control pills. Should reproductive health advocates accept the support, or is there a more sinister plot at play?

Two people with the conservative Cato Institute wrote an op-ed published last month in the Los Angeles Times calling for hormonal contraceptives to be made available without a prescription—a surprising endorsement of contraceptive access from a hard-right think tank best known for its ties to the Koch brothers and the GOP.

After all, conservatives tend to oppose the advancement of contraceptive access, from attempting to ban emergency contraceptives to trying to torpedo the birth control benefit under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As public health advocates push the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve a daily birth control pill for over-the-counter (OTC) access, it would certainly be heartening to see conservative support for contraception; nearly 8 in 10 adults in the United States already consider contraception to be “a basic part of women’s health care.”

Read the rest of this piece at REWIRE.news.

Sarah Christopherson, MA, is the Legislative Director for the social justice campaign, Americans for Tax Fairness, and the NWHN’s former Policy Advocacy Director. Her 10 years working for Congress and her deep knowledge of health policy and consumer protection make her the NWHN’s issue area expert on federal health reform implementation and defense, drug and device safety and efficacy, and sexual and reproductive health.

Read more from Sarah Christopherson.