Pharmacists: furnishing contraceptives.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on the safety information provided to patients, only that it is related to standardized factsheets for prescription-only contraceptives.

Pharmacists Can Give Over-the-Counter Birth Control

AB-50 changes California law to allow pharmacists to give out over-the-counter contraceptives without following special rules and allows them to provide up to a year's supply at once.

What This Bill Does

• Changes the rules for giving out self-administered hormonal contraceptives that require a prescription, limiting the application of standardized procedures or protocols to these types of contraceptives.
• Allows pharmacists to give out over-the-counter contraceptives without needing special procedures or protocols.
• Permits pharmacists to provide up to a 12-month supply of over-the-counter contraceptives at one time if requested by the patient.

Who It Names or Affects

• Pharmacists in California
• Patients who want birth control from pharmacies

Terms To Know

Over-the-counter contraceptives

Birth control that you can buy without a doctor's prescription.

Standardized procedures or protocols

Specific steps and rules that pharmacists must follow when giving out certain medicines.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill only changes how over-the-counter contraceptives are given, not prescription-only ones.
• It does not specify what happens if a patient needs medical help after getting birth control from a pharmacist.

Official Summary Text

AB 50, Bonta.
Pharmacists: furnishing contraceptives.
Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, establishes in the Department of Consumer Affairs the California State Board of Pharmacy to license and regulate the practice of pharmacy. Exiting law requires a pharmacist, when furnishing self-administered hormonal contraceptives, to follow specified standardized procedures or protocols developed and approved by both the board and the Medical Board of California in consultation with the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the California Pharmacists Association, and other appropriate entities. Existing law requires those standardized procedures or protocols to require that the patient use a self-screening tool that will identify related patient risk factors and that require the pharmacist to refer the patient for appropriate followup care, as specified. Existing law requires the pharmacist to provide the recipient of the drug with a
standardized factsheet that includes the indications and contraindications for use of the drug, the appropriate method for using the drug, the need for medical followup, and other appropriate information. Existing law authorizes a pharmacist furnishing an FDA-approved, self-administered hormonal contraceptive pursuant to the above-described protocols to furnish, at the patient’s request, up to a 12-month supply at one time.
This bill would limit the application of those requirements to self-administered hormonal contraceptives that are prescription-only, and would authorize a pharmacist to furnish over-the-counter contraceptives without following those standardized procedures or protocols.
The bill would additionally authorize a pharmacist to furnish up to a 12-month supply at one time of over-the-counter contraceptives at the patient’s request. The bill would make related conforming changes.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF