A 2022 Berkeley Public Health study found the majority of California community pharmacists are willing to legally prescribe medication abortion but lack the policy support and training to confidently do so.
Sandra McCoy, professor of epidemiology at Berkeley Public Health, studied California pharmacists and collected their views on supplying medication abortion in community pharmacies.
In a study that analyzed 316 pharmacists in community pharmacies across California, McCoy and a team of researchers found that 69% of the pharmacists were willing to prescribe medication abortion if legal but feel they need more knowledge to confidently prescribe it, according to McCoy. They also found policy-related barriers, including insurance coverage, for this work.
“Pharmacists are highly trained medical professionals with experience leading confidential and sensitive conversations with clients. (They) are located in nearly every community,” McCoy said in an email. “For some, pharmacies may be perceived as more convenient and/or less stigmatizing than other healthcare settings.”
Policymakers are attempting to find ways to increase reproductive health access including abortion, according to McCoy.
She added that California pharmacists have been able to prescribe hormonal birth control since 2016, providing an opportunity to learn about pharmacist-provided reproductive health care.
“Abortion access is under continuous threat,” McCoy said in the email, noting what prompted the study. “Both the American Medical Association and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have expressed support for pharmacists dispensing medication abortion based on pilot programs demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of this delivery channel.”
Statistical analysis for the paper was led by Lauren Hunter from the Berkeley Division of Epidemiology, and data collection took place from October to December 2022 as part of the California Pharmacist Study. It was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open.
McCoy pointed out public interest in sexual and reproductive health products in pharmacies, further noting that 21 states currently either ban abortion or restrict it earlier in pregnancy than Roe v. Wade standards.
She said pharmacy COVID-19 vaccine distribution revealed the role pharmacies can play in essential healthcare service access.
“Our study adds to this momentum and suggests that pharmacists are generally willing to provide medication abortion if it was allowed by law and they received additional training,” McCoy said in the email.
Moving forward, McCoy emphasized that the study shows legislative efforts to expand abortion access should account for the role pharmacists play.
McCoy believes consideration of pharmacists in expanding abortion access could relate to SB 493, the California law that has allowed pharmacists to independently prescribe hormonal birth control since 2016.
