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| Helping pharmacy & health communities improve access to Emergency Contraception (EC) |
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Pharmacy Policy & LegislationSeventeen states in the U.S. have passed or attempted to pass legislation regarding pharmacy access to emergency contraception. Click on a state to view the status, history, and text of a particular bill. Pharmacy Access Partnership supports the right of individuals to access safe, legal health care supplies and medications, including emergency contraception (EC). As an effective back-up birth control method, EC can prevent an unintended pregnancy if used within five days of unprotected sex. In fact, studies show that EC has the potential to reduce 1.3 million unintended pregnancies in the U.S. each year. Some pharmacists may refuse to dispense medication based on personal beliefs. With the passage of SB 644 in California, as of January 2006, any California pharmacist who refuses to dispense certain medications must notify his/her employer prior to the onset of employment so that the employer can institute a protocol that: 1) provides that another on-duty pharmacist can dispense, and/or 2) allows for referral to a nearby pharmacist who will fill the prescription. This protocol should be seamless to the patient. Although legislation to address pharmacist refusal issues may serve as an effective measure to ensure women get timely access to legal medications and services, we believe it should cover all medical providers who can initiate an EC prescription — not just pharmacists. Equally effective — as evidenced by the success of California’s EC Pharmacy Access Program — are strategies that proactively engage and educate the pharmacist and pharmacy community about the public health benefits of contraception, including EC, along with the personal benefits to women trying to prevent an unintended pregnancy. As an organization that works to improve community health through pharmacies, we want to ensure that consumers and the media are aware of the thousands of pharmacists providing EC directly to women each day. Beyond stocking, filling EC prescriptions and dispensing EC OTC, approximately 4,000 pharmacists throughout California voluntarily sought specialized training to initiate a prescription for EC directly to women regardless of age in 90% of the state’s counties. We applaud these pharmacists for actively working to ensure women have timely access to the products and services they need. In the interest of public health, we believe the patient’s right to access safe, legal medical care is of paramount importance. Federal Legislation In June 2007, the Access to Birth Control Act was introduced in Congress. The bill would require all pharmacies to provide birth control, including EC. As of June 2006, the bill had been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the companion bill to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. For more information on state legislation on pharmacists’ rights, resources are available through MergerWatch, the National Conference of State Legislatures or the Guttmacher Institute.
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