Expanding Contraceptive Prescribing Authority in Wisconsin to Increase Birth Control Access

Contraceptive access gaps driven by federal rollbacks, provider shortages, and stalled state legislation could be narrowed by letting trained pharmacists prescribe birth control independently.

Recent federal policy shifts, including overturning the right to abortion and reducing family planning funding, have constrained access to reproductive health care, including contraception, nationwide.¹ Nearly one-third of adult women seeking contraception experience financial, logistical, and geographic barriers to care, which have had pronounced effects on women and girls.² In the state of Wisconsin, approximately 325,000 women of reproductive age live in contraceptive deserts—regions lacking access to providers that offer the full range of contraceptive methods—and 120,000 women of reproductive age report obstacles to obtaining birth control.^2,3