SC House panel approves giving women easier access to birth control

An S.C. House panel celebrated International Women’s Day Wednesday by approving two bills to give women easier access to birth control.

Over the objections of the S.C. Alliance of Health Plans, three House members unanimously voted to advance a proposal letting women get up to a year’s worth of birth control at one time.

The panel also OK’d a bill that would allow women to get birth control refills for up to three years before they have to go back to a doctor for a new prescription.

“Everything that we’re seeing – defunding Planned Parenthood, limiting the rights of women’s access to health – I think this is significant for us in South Carolina to be able to advance bills that help advance women’s health issues,” said state Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Richland, a co-sponsor of the 12-month birth control bill with state Rep. Kirkman Finlay, R-Richland.

Having to refill birth-control prescriptions each month is a hassle for women who lack transportation, live in rural areas or have hectic schedules, Ann Warner, chief executive of the Women’s Rights and Empowerment Network, told the hearing, packed with women’s rights advocates.

Warner said studies show women who receive a one-year supply of birth control were 30 percent less likely to have an unintended pregnancy.

“A woman’s ability to choose whether and when to become pregnant has a direct and positive impact on her health, education and her economic well-being, as well as that of the children,” Warner said.

A lobbyist for the S.C. Alliance of Health Plans spoke out against requiring insurers to cover a one-year supply of birth control.

Anthony Quattrone argued the bill:

▪  Risks patients’ safety because some contraceptives have serious side effects or could expire within 12 months

▪  Increases “the cost of coverage, which will ultimately be passed on to the consumer”

▪  Does not explain what happens to unused drugs if a patient switches birth-control methods before the year is up, or who must pay for the new contraceptives

▪  Opens to door to “waste, fraud, abuse” and could create a birth control “black market.”

Lawmakers quickly dismissed those concerns.

“I find it highly unlikely that we’ll be on the corner swapping out Ortho 28s,” said state Rep. Katie Arrington, R-Dorchester.

The panel also scratched a proposal by state Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, to make birth control more accessible by allowing pharmacists to prescribe and dispense contraceptives.

After hearing doctors’ concerns that prescribing contraceptives is too complex to do in a pharmacy line, House members replaced that bill with one that requires a doctor’s prescription to get birth control.

However, the bill would let doctors write birth-control prescriptions that last up to three years.

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 11:00 AM with the headline "SC House panel approves giving women easier access to birth control."