New Jersey Passes Law Allowing Pharmacists to Dispense Birth Control Without Prescription

In mid-January, New Jersey Governor Philip Murphy signed a law allowing pharmacists in the state to dispense self-administered hormonal contraceptives to patients without a prescription. 

The law defines “self-administered hormonal contraceptives” as any oral, transdermal, or vaginal contraceptive product, including but not limited to birth control pills, vaginal rings, and diaphragms. The bill requires the state’s Commissioner of Health to “establish a public awareness campaign to make the general public aware of the availability to obtain self-administered hormonal contraceptives from a pharmacy without the need for an individualized prescription.” The campaign will be funded by the Department of Health.

The procedures and protocols for the program are being jointly developed by the New Jersey Board of Pharmacy and the State Board of Medical Examiners, with input from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the New Jersey Pharmacists Association, and others. 

Pharmacists will be required to complete a training program. Patients will have their own requirements; the law specifies that patients must use a self-screening tool to identify risk factors. The tool—designed using the United States Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—will help pharmacists determine if a patient is eligible for hormonal birth control. Pharmacists are required to offer counseling on other types of contraception available, and to refer patients to their primary care physicians or an appropriate nearby medical clinic, regardless of whether they are dispensed the birth control.  

New Jersey is one of 20 states where pharmacists can prescribe self-administered hormonal birth control according to a law or standing order. The first state to pass such a law was California, in 2013. According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, 10 other states are poised to enact similar legislation.