Posted: March 11, 2016 Contributor: administrator
Senate Approves Pharmacist-Written Birth Control Prescriptions
In Tennessee, women may soon experience unparalleled access to birth control. Imagine simply heading to your local pharmacy and asking the pharmacist if he or she could provide you with prescription birth control—WITHOUT a script from your physician. This hypothetical situation may soon become a reality.
The Senate has approved a bill in Tennessee that would allow this. Not all pharmacists would have this capability but a select group of pharmacists would work under the guidelines of a physician who would develop protocols for best practices.
This not only makes gaining access to birth control a whole lot easier but for many women, not having to pay for a doctor’s appointment makes a huge financial difference. When it comes to health insurance, birth control pills would still be covered since an actual prescription would still be present.
Like most initiatives of it’s kind, it has of course been met with some resistance. Those against the bill voiced concerns that without a doctor’s exam there is no way to tell if the woman is getting the right type of birth control and whether or not she will follow up. While these seem like valid concerns, studies have proven that a physician’s appointment is unnecessary to safely prescribe birth control.
This recent move to increase the accessibility of birth control is pretty fantastic. From the services we offer at Prjkt Ruby (birth control online) to the increase in birth control accessibility worldwide, we are very excited that this movement is taking off and we can’t wait to see what comes next!