The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted to authorize the sale of birth control pills without a prescription, an act that elicited criticism from Bishop Robert Barron.

“Fertility is a gift, not a disease,” Barron said in a release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “Contraceptives exist to suppress the healthy functions of human reproduction.” 

During a unanimous 17-0 vote last week, the panel agreed to allow the birth control pill known as Opill to be sold over the counter. If it receives final approval, Opill would become the first birth control pill to be available without a prescription in the United States, NBC News reported. 

“The mounting evidence of the many harmful side effects of hormonal contraceptives demonstrates that they are not good medicine,” Barron, bishop of Winona-Rochester and chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, said in the release questioning the pill’s safety. “And yet, now the FDA is faced with the decision of whether to allow access to hormonal contraception without medical supervision. Allowing this to go forward is antithetical to the Hippocratic Oath that guides physicians to first ‘do no harm,’ and I urge the FDA reject this recommendation.”

Barron's statement echoes the disapproval previously expressed by the USCCB, the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), and various other Catholic medical organizations, the USCCB said. 

Some of the concerns about the safety and efficacy of the birth control pill center on the notion that it must be taken daily to be effective. Side effects of the pill include an increased risk of breast cancer, vaginal bleeding, neurological conditions, as well as others. The pill is already available without a prescription in more than 100 countries worldwide, NBC News reported.

“It is concerning that the FDA has a recommendation before it to approve over-the-counter hormonal contraception when there is strong evidence of the many harmful risks to women’s health," said Barron. "In fact, in May 2022, the FDA changed their safety prescribing protocols because of a Citizens’ Petition from healthcare professionals and educators that raised scientific evidence of the increased risk of breast cancer with the use of hormonal contraception."