To establish certain duties for pharmacies to ensure provision of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraception, and for other purposes.
United States115th CongressHR-2567House of Representatives
Updated: May 26, 2017
Summary
Access to Birth Control Act This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to require pharmacies to comply with certain rules related to contraceptives, including: (1) providing a customer a contraceptive without delay if it is in stock; (2) immediately informing a customer if the contraceptive is not in stock and either transferring the prescription to a pharmacy that has the contraceptive in stock or ordering the contraceptive and notifying the customer when it arrives, based on customer preference, except for pharmacies that do not ordinarily stock contraceptives; and (3) ensuring that pharmacy employees do not take certain actions relating to a request for contraception, including intimidating, threatening, or harassing customers, interfering with the delivery of services, intentionally deceiving customers about the availability or mechanism of action of contraception, breaching or threatening to breach medical confidentiality, or refusing to return a prescription. The bill does not prohibit a pharmacy from refusing to provide a contraceptive to a customer if: (1) it is unlawful to dispense the contraceptive to the customer without a prescription and no prescription is presented; (2) the customer is unable to pay for the contraceptive; or (3) the pharmacy employee refuses to provide the contraceptive on the basis of a professional clinical judgment. The bill does not preempt state law or any professional obligation of a state board that provides greater protections for customers. Civil penalties and a private cause of action are established for violations of this bill.
Bill texts
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Timeline
Latest companion bill action
S-2259: A bill to establish certain duties for pharmacies to ensure provision of Food and Drug Administration-approved contraception, medication related to contraception, and for other purposes.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
House of Representatives
Introduced in House
Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.
House of Representatives
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