Women living in the United States' West Coast states of California and Oregon will legally be allowed to purchase over-the-counter (OTC) hormonal contraceptives within the next few months. New laws will allow them to buy birth control pills directly from pharmacists, without needing to obtain a doctor's prescription. Public health supporters in states with high "unintended pregnancy" rates hope that new bills will provide access to birth control blocked by federal law.
After the new bills take effect in California and Oregon, women in the two states can get contraceptives such as pills, rings, and patches without a physician's prescription. The process will be easier and cheaper.
Female customers will just have to fill out a sheet of paper with questions about their health and medical history, and then pharmacies can sell the contraceptives. Insurance companies will foot the bill.
The new state bills differ from the contentious section in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires health care companies to pay for birth control. In fact, Knute Buehler of the conservative Republican party sponsored the Oregon law, according to The New York Times.
However, supporters of OTC contraceptives admit that getting the U.S.'s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval could take many years. The FDA often requires extra studies.
Another issue is that the ACA does not require health care plans to cover OTC medicines. That could boost the cost of OTC contraceptives by hundreds of dollars per year.
Dr. Nancy Stanwood of Physicians for Reproductive Health described the new birth control laws in California and Oregon as "incubators." They could become models for a similar federal law.
Around half of the 6.6 million annual U.S. pregnancies are unintended. The figure is 40 percent worldwide, according to Guttmacher Institute.