Former Reason magazine editor Virginia Postrel argues that people should be able to buy birth control as they do condoms: Without a prescription. This would diffuse the controversy on government’s mandate on health plans.  Read the article here:

Fight Birth-Control Battle Over the Counter: Virginia Postrel – Bloomberg.
(Via Jonathan Adler at the Volokh Conspiracy.)

Question: Why does “over the counter” mean without a prescription?  When I buy non-prescription medications, I take them off a shelf, and put them on a counter when I pay. It need not go over the counter. But when I get a prescription filled, the pharmacist passes the medication from her side of the counter, and over to mine!