Low-income Californians would have an easier time purchasing hormonal birth control pills at their local pharmacy under a new bill.
The bill, which was recently introduced to the California State Assembly, would remove a self-screening requirement for recipients of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, trying to access daily hormonal birth control pills without a prescription.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the U.S.’s first over-the-counter daily hormonal birth control pill, called Opill, last year, with boxes of the drug appearing on pharmacy shelves last spring.
Medi-Cal covers the cost of Opill but requires pharmacists to give members a self-screening patient intake before they can dispense the drug.
“If the pharmacist deems the selected medication appropriate, they will provide counseling including direction for self-administered usage, potential risks associated with the medications, and risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections,” according to the Medi-Cal Rx website.
Under the bill, pharmacists would be required to give the self-screen intake form only before dispensing a daily hormonal birth control pill that requires a prescription.
“Over-the-counter birth control is ensuring contraceptives are readily available to more people than ever,” said Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D), who introduced the bill. “We should not stifle this progress by leaving Medi-Cal recipients behind and making low-income communities have to take more steps than their peers on private insurance to access medication.”
The new bill comes as many Americans brace for further restrictions on reproductive rights under a second Trump presidency, including potential regulations on contraception.
President-elect Trump said during the campaign that he was open to supporting regulations on contraception during an interview with a Pittsburgh television station. He then backtracked on his comments, saying they were misinterpreted.
Americans have been stockpiling birth control pills and emergency contraception in the weeks since Trump secured a victory in the 2024 presidential election. Searches for birth control doubled between Nov. 2 and two days after the election and groups like Aid Access, which connects people to mail-order abortion pills, experienced a 16-fold increase in requests the day following the election.
