‘Comedy’: Amy Schumer Compares Birth Control to Gun Rights

Birth control shouldn’t be controlled, according to Amy Schumer’s new ad. 

Amy Schumer’s “Ask if birth control is right for you” ad premiered during the third season of Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer on April 21 – but is just starting to go viral on social media [1]. The ad follows Schumer as she asks everyone from her boss to strangers on the street for permission to buy birth control, and concludes with a little boy easily obtaining a gun because “that’s your right.” 

To poke fun at birth control restrictions, Schumer’s skit introduced, “OrthoEsterin,” a “new low-dose daily birth control pill.” 

The ad then explains who a woman needs permission from before obtaining the pill (because she’s paying for it herself… right?).

“Ask your doctor if birth control is right for you,” the ad begins. “Then, ask your boss if birth control is right for you. Ask your boss to ask his priest. Find a Boy Scout and see what he thinks. Tap a mailman on the shoulder. Tell him you didn’t mean to startle him. Then, ask him if birth control is right for you.” 

The ad suggests asking a myriad of others, from online platforms and “an old black man and an Asian boy playing chess” to someone hearing for the first time after a cochlear implant and the Supreme Court. 

“Finally ask yourself,” the ad commands, “why you insist on having sex for fun.” 

After Schumer goes through the whole process and receives her birth control at the pharmacy, a little boy casually goes up to the same counter to ask, “Can I have a gun?”

“Yup,” the pharmacist responds while passing him one from behind the counter. “Remember, that’s your right.” 

As the writer for this particular sketch, Christine Nangle told [2] Cosmo that the idea for the ad occurred to her 2012. 

“I remember when [stories about birth control] died down a little bit I was like, ‘Oh man, I wish I could have done that idea,’ and then also being excited and super disappointed that birth control became topical again [with Hobby Lobby],” she said. “It was like, ‘How are we still fighting about this? ... Oh shit, I had a funny take on this!’ Unfortunately it will be topical again in the future.”

The Stir also commented [3] on the “parody of a Republican-approved birth control ad.” 

“Hey, there will probably come a time where a 10-year-old can get a gun more easily than a grown woman can get a birth control pill,” writer Kiri Blakeley [4] wrote, “and that time may even be now.” 

Schumer is in good company, joining comedians who enjoy dipping their fingers into politics [5].