New Laws in Two States will Allow Pharmacists to Prescribe Birth Control

“I feel strongly that this is what’s best for women’s health in the 21st century, and I also feel it will have repercussions for decreasing poverty because one of the key things for women in poverty is unintended pregnancy”, State Rep. Knute Buehler (R-Oregon), who sponsored the OR bill, told The Times.

There are plenty of reasons to think that letting pharmacists dispense birth control will have positive results. OR and California policymakers are trying to buck that trend with what the NY Times calls “groundbreaking” new laws that would allow birth control to be doled out by a pharmacist without a doctor’s Rx.

The new law will allow women to get multiple forms of birth control from their pharmacists, including birth control pills, patches and rings.

Reproductive health groups and medical associations increasingly say the ultimate goal should be to make contraceptives available without a prescription, and a few worry that the push for pharmacist-prescribed contraceptives could thwart that. The United States is plagued by astronomical rates of teenage and unintended pregnancy, and the law has done little to address this issue. With Oregon’s law, however, that’s not likely to be a problem because pharmacist won’t be permitted to refill over-the-counter birth control to a woman who hasn’t seen her doctor in the three years following their first dose of birth control.

Contraceptives prescribed by pharmacists will be covered by insurance, as they are now, The Times reported.

Should OR and California’s new system work out, though, it’s likely that other states will follow in their example. Hopefully, women will feel the same way about a prescription that can be obtained right at the pharmacy. When the state of Colorado made birth control free and available to teens, it estimated that it saved .85 in short-term Medicaid costs for every dollar spent, and perhaps more over the long term.

Members of the Oregon Board of Pharmacy noted the law is about better access to prevent unwanted pregnancies. He’s concerned that this new model simply puts a different person between women and their birth control and might “derail” efforts to make the pill accessible over the counter. “They’re both worthwhile goals, but one should not be held hostage to the other”. California pharmacists must have extensive training, but “in exchange will be able to perform a wide range of medical services such as prescribing cessation aids for quitting smoking and medications for traveling overseas; administering routine vaccinations to children aged 3 and older; and ordering laboratory tests, among others”, the report says.

Dr. Mark DeFrancesco, the president of The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said his group is opposed to the law, adding that hormonal contraceptives should be available over the counter and women should not have anyone between them and the pill.

Women in OR will soon be able to get birth control pills directly from a pharmacist instead of having to go through their doctor.