New Mexico pharmacists to offer birth control prescriptions

Starting next month, dozens of New Mexico pharmacists will not only fill birth control prescriptions, but prescribe them as well.

“I think it’s really good,” said Liz DeLucia, a Walgreen’s customer. “I think women should be able to get what they need, you know, without anybody having any restrictions on them.”

At least 30 New Mexico pharmacists should complete training training by April, a spokesman with the New Mexico Pharmacists Association confirmed.

Last year, New Mexico adopted regulations allowing pharmacists to write prescriptions for hormonal contraceptives, joining states like Oregon, Colorado and California.

“Sometimes (women) have to wait two weeks or a month to get a doctor’s appointment,” said Earl Nissen, chairman of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Work Group of Doña Ana County. “I think for the rural areas, this is a real benefit for women.”

At least one of the trainees is from Las Cruces, the spokesman with the New Mexico Pharmacists Association confirmed. Several hours of training is necessary before pharmacists can prescribe birth control.

Pharmacists have had prescribing capabilities in New Mexico since 2001, the spokesman said. The state’s first protocols were immunizations and emergency contraceptives.