The Wisconsin Assembly is expected to pass a Republican-authored, bipartisan bill opposed by anti-abortion groups that would allow pharmacists to prescribe and dispense birth control. The GOP-controlled Assembly passed the measure with bipartisan support last session, but it died in the Senate. Its sponsor, Republican Rep. Joel Kitchens, has said he’s optimistic it will get a vote this session. The vote Wednesday marks the first time the bill has come up since Wisconsin’s 1849 law banning abortion went back into effect following last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Democrats successfully campaigned on abortion access in the past two elections.
But isn’t it way easier to walk into a pharmacy that’s out-of-area than it is to find and schedule with a doctor that’s out-of-area?
I guess I just can’t imagine this being any more effective at discouraging birth control than the current alternative, especially since I don’t see anything that says doctors couldn’t still prescribe it too?
@archomrade The end-game is to take the decision from doctors entirely and give it to someone else. Doctors are far less likely to refuse to prescribe the pill than pharmacists are to refuse to provide it, if they know they have the authority to block its access. It’s easier for all 1-4 pharmacists in a red district to collude than it is to get all doctors in the area to do it. The goal of this kind of legislation is to take that authority from doctors and give it to people willing to gatekeep.
@archomrade This is also the strategy that underpins right-wing efforts to make the pill over-the-counter: once doctors aren’t prescribing it the decision to carry it or not rests entirely with the point-of-contact for access. You can effectively build “dry counties” for the pill this way.