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4/22/2025
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House OKs bill eliminating 3-month limit on pharmacist-prescribed contraception
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STATE HOUSE – The House of Representatives today approved legislation sponsored by Rep. Edith H. Ajello to eliminate a three-month limit on hormonal contraceptives that are prescribed by pharmacists.
The legislation (2025-H 6038) would amend a law adopted in 2023 that was intended to make contraceptives more easily accessible to women, particularly at a time when the state’s shortage of primary care providers is making doctor’s appointments more difficult to get.
“Studies have shown that women who have a yearlong prescription for contraceptives are 30 percent less likely to experience an unintended pregnancy than those who need to get a new prescription every one to three months,” said Representative Ajello (D-Dist. 1, Providence). “We’ve had a couple of years now of allowing pharmacists to prescribe contraceptives in Rhode Island, and the experience has been positive for public health. Since the purpose of this law is to make contraceptives easily accessible, we should now eliminate this remaining barrier so that women whose contraceptives are prescribed by pharmacists have the same effective level of protection as those who get them from their doctors.”
With the impending closure of Anchor Medical Associates in June, leaving 25,000 Rhode Islanders in search of primary care providers, it is particularly important to ensure that women can get a contraception prescription without the need for a doctor’s appointment, Representative Ajello added.
Rhode Island is one of 30 states, plus Washington, D.C., that allow pharmacists to prescribe contraceptives.
Existing provisions of Rhode Island’s law require that the prescribing pharmacist is trained specifically on contraceptives, that the patient complete a self-screening risk assessment tool before the prescription is issued, and that information on the prescription be provided to the patient and her doctor, if applicable.
The legislation now goes to the Senate, where Sen. Meghan E. Kallman (D-Dist. 15, Pawtucket, Providence) is sponsoring companion legislation (2025-S 0476).
The bill is supported by the Rhode Island Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association, the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the League of Woman Voters, the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and Upstream USA.
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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