Pharmacists will now be allowed to fill birth control

MISHAWAKA, Ind. - A new law going into effect July 1 would allow you to get birth control from your pharmacists and not just your primary care doctor.   

ABC57's Ryan Jaghab spoke with a pharmacist that said, while this should make contraceptives easier to access, there's still confusion about how this will work. 

"We haven't really had any guidance yet from the state of Indiana that I've seen to tell us how to do that, so I'm hoping that’s going to happen before the first person walks in the door and wants me to prescribe,” said Jeff Huff, the head pharmacist at Right Med Pharmacy.  

Huff is uncertain about the protocol of house enrolled act 1568 -- going into effect this Saturday, which will allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control pills, patches, or rings up until one year. 

Though pharmacists are allowed to refuse to prescribe contraceptives due to ethical or religious objections.   

“And I know of a pharmacist in this area that won't even fill birth control prescriptions, so I imagine the same thing, they’ll be able to refuse to do this too. It remains to be seen. I'm going to imagine that’s going to happen also,” said Huff. 

Pharmacists who want to prescribe will have to go through additional training. 

Prescriptions over one year require a referral to a healthcare provider. 

Brianna Craig, a sophomore at IU Bloomington supports the bill.  

“I think that honestly it’s a great opportunity for those that don’t have a primary care doctor or who have a harder time with insurance who like can't get to a doctor to be able to the contraceptives that they need whether it's for personal health reasons with their period or having safe sex,” said Craig.

The FDA is also working on getting birth control to be over the counter.