(Bloomberg) — Women in New Jersey will no longer need a doctor’s prescription to purchase contraceptives under a law signed Friday by Governor Phil Murphy.
(Bloomberg) — Women in New Jersey will no longer need a doctor’s prescription to purchase contraceptives under a law signed Friday by Governor Phil Murphy.
“Here in New Jersey we can proudly say we have finally freed the pill,” said Democratic state Senator Shirley Turner, who has been introducing the bill in the state Assembly since 2015. It was approved by lawmakers last month.
New Jersey joins more than 20 states and 100 countries that allow access to contraception like birth control pills without a doctor’s permission, said Turner. Murphy said the law would apply to women from other states as well.
“We’re also making New Jersey a safe haven for women from states which do not honor or, in the worst case, even recognize their reproductive freedoms,” said Murphy.
The governor, a 65-year-old Democrat in his second term, has been positioning himself as a champion of reproductive freedom since the US Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion in June. The court’s decision left it to individual states to determine abortion policies. Since then, 20 states have passed abortion bans, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive legislation.
The New Jersey law permits pharmacists to sell contraceptives like birth control pills and diaphragms over-the-counter. People seeking hormonal birth control would first fill out a questionnaire developed by the Department of Health to screen for health concerns.
Murphy emphasized that the law will take some time to implement, with additional regulations still to put into place first.
“But we’re going to push with all due speed and diligence to get those done,” Murphy said.
–With assistance from Elise Young.
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