Consequences of Easier Access to Birth Control Pills

In the next few months, Oregon and California will implement laws letting people obtain hormonal birth control, such as pills, patches, and rings, without having to first get a prescription from a doctor. Instead, folks will be able to see a pharmacist, who will do her own on-site evaluation and write out a prescription. Presumably, the pharmacist can then fill the prescription right then and there. The laws are intended to make it easier for both young and poor women to obtain birth control; the new process is faster, more convenient, and potentially—but not necessarily—cheaper.

Will these laws work as intended? Will they have other, unintended effects? Here's what the research says will likely happen.