Sanctuary states should improve access to emergency and preventive contraception
“Expanding access to birth control — emergency and preventive contraception — at local pharmacies should also be prioritized. All pharmacies should be required to carry and mandated to dispense birth control to anyone that requests it with or without a prescription. Title X funding can be used to finance the costs for those seeking contraceptives at a pharmacy. More and more states, including California, permit pharmacists to prescribe birth control, yet findings from a study we conducted in Los Angeles found that only 1 in 10 pharmacies provide this service.”
Dima Qato is Hygeia Centennial Chair and associate professor in the Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the USC School of Pharmacy. She is an expert on drug utilization and access to medicines and pharmaceutical policy in the United States and globally.