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The State Assembly has approved a plan to allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control pills and patches.

There could soon be another way for women to get birth control in Wisconsin.

A bipartisan group of Wisconsin lawmakers are working together to pass a bill that would allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control. Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, sponsored the plan.

“This bill will allow women to have more choices in reproductive health care, decrease the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions, it will save taxpayers dollars, and it will reduce generational poverty,” Kitchens said.

Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia have already passed laws allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal birth control like oral pills, the patch, and the ring.

No appointment necessary

Currently in Wisconsin, people who want birth control have to make an appointment with a doctor, answer a mandatory list of questions about their health, and then doctors will decide if they can take hormonal birth control. After all of that, they’re given a prescription to take to a pharmacy to be filled.

But access to primary care physicians is dwindling—especially in rural areas. A report by the Legislative Reference Bureau shows nearly 150 areas in Wisconsin are facing shortages of primary care physicians, with many of the areas located in rural parts of the state.

Easier is better

Tanya Atkinson, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin President and CEO, said her group is in favor of plans that make it easier for people to get the care they need.

“We support people being able to access birth control more readily—in their backyard,” Atkinson said. “That’s one of our big commitments—health equity—being able to access care is critical.”

Similar bills have passed multiple times in the Assembly, but failed to move forward in the Senate.

Rep. Kitchens is hopeful Democratic support for the bill can get it passed this time around.

The bill was co-sponsored by several Democrats and is backed by a range of medical and public health organizations.

Passage would require Republicans—who hold the majority in the state Senate—to schedule it for a vote, which has not happened before.

“In general, it shows some positive progress that there’s an attempt to expand access to reproductive health care in Wisconsin when, for many years, we’ve seen so many attempts to restrict access to birth control in Wisconsin,’ Atkinson explained.