What you need to know about California’s new birth control law
Basically, you don’t need a doctor’s prescription to get self-administered birth control (pills, patches, injections and vaginal rings) in California anymore. You go down to the pharmacy, fill out a questionnaire and get your blood pressure taken. There’s no age limit, either. Methods that require doctor-performed insertion, like the implant or IUDs, do still require a prescription.
This is pretty great for people who can’t afford the doctor’s appointment to get a prescription or have other reasons not to go to a doctor, making birth control more accessible than before.
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Do bear in mind one thing: If you go on the pill or similar and get horrid side effects, go back to the pharmacist.
There are several different “types” of hormonal birth control with different hormone ratios, and a medical professional can’t always pick the right one for your specific biochemistry first time.
That said, this is the way it should be. This is going to make life much easier for teenagers who’s parents refuse to let them go on birth control because they think it somehow incentivizes them to have sex, for example.
