Glenn Harlan Reynolds| Opinion columnist

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezsaysbirth control should be available over the counter.Shes right.

(At least, if by birth control she means birth control pills. I presume no one, least of all the pharmacist at Walgreens, wants pharmaciststo insert IUDs.)

Birth control pills are available over the counter in most other countries. The morning-after pill, better known as Plan B, is already available over the counter in America.

Most American women favor making the birth control pill accessibleover the counter.According to a 2017 Kaiser Family Foundation survey, three-quartersof women of reproductive age support over-the-counteraccess to birth control pills.

So why hasnt it happened? It must be that awful, religious-right-dominated GOP thats standing in the way, right?

Actually, not so much.

Republicans, in fact, have repeatedly tried to make birth control pills available without a prescription, only to face opposition from . . . Democrats and Planned Parenthood.

Yes, you heard that right. Democrats and Planned Parenthood have fought against making it easier for women to get birth control pills. Why? Well, they have their reasons.

In Planned Parenthoods case, its probably, according to Hadley Heath Manning writingin Forbes, because theyd make less money.Planned Parenthoods stance on expanding access to birth control may be illogical in light of their mission statement, but it is perfectly logical when you consider the groups financial interests.Planned Parenthood brings in 1.7 billion dollars in revenue annually according to it's latest financial reportand contraception accounts for 27% of the services they provide.

Read more commentary:

I was denied insurance coverage for birth control. Kavanaugh would make the problem worse.

How Democrats can win the abortion war: Talk about Roe's restrictions as well as rights

Trump administration plan means fewer Americans will have access to family planning

If women are buying their pills at CVS, theres no insurance money rake-off for Planned Parenthood. (And if you want to be ultra-cynical, if fewer women are on the pill thatKaiser surveysays that one in five sexually active women ages 18-44 arent on any birth control then that means more abortion business for Planned Parenthood, which is, as Manning notes, Americas "number one abortion provider.")

Planned Parenthood is also a big donor to Democrats, who have worked to block over-the-counterbirth control pills. And Democrats have fought hard, partly because they and drug companies want birth control pills to be subject to health insurance reimbursement, though only the more privileged among Americans get that.

As Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes in Reason, Even as they ramped up efforts to portray Republicans as the harbingers of a Handmaid's Tale scenario and to portray themselves as hip to the needs of marginalized groups, Democrats sacrificed an opportunity to help women struggling to obtain birth control prevent unintended pregnancies. Instead, at the expense of undocumented immigrants, low-income women, victims of domestic violence, and others, they opted to help middle-class women save $10 a month and prop up insurance providers, pharmaceutical companies, and the Democratic fundraising machine in the process.

So Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is right that birth control pills should be available over the counter, but her ideais being blocked by a largely Democratic coalition thats basicallyworking to protect the interests of big businesses. As Jillian Kay Melchior writes:Womens health-care choices shouldnt be limited by the greed of special-interest groups or the political calculations of jaded congressmen.

Will an un-jaded congresswoman, in the person of Ocasio-Cortez, be able to shake up this coalition and help Republicans pass legislation to free birth control pills from excessive regulation? Or was she just tweeting? Stay tuned to find out.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor and the author of "The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself," is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

Continued here:

Democrats, not Republicans, block over-the-counter birth control