Chair Harris, Vice-Chair Munoz and members of the Senate Insurance Committee:
My name is Courtney Joslin and I am a resident fellow for the R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization whose mission is to engage in policy research that supports free markets and limited, effective government. I lead R Street’s research on state policies for birth control access, with a focus on sensible deregulatory efforts such as pharmacist-prescribed birth control. I appreciate the opportunity to elaborate on why I support HB 135, and how this model has brought positive outcomes to other states
Since 2015, 18 states and Washington, D.C., have begun allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal birth control. The pharmacy access model, as it is often called, has caught on for several reasons. First, this model is safe. Leading medical organizations, such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Physicians, supp
Chairman and members of the committee,
Our names are Courtney Joslin and Marc Hyden, and we are with the R Street Institute, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization. Our mission is to engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government in many areas, including public health. That is why SB 151 is of special interest to us.
While we are not advocating for any particular action on this legislation, we believe that the status quo cannot continue in perpetuity. As it stands, South Carolina has the nation’s 15th-highest teen birth rate; 50 percent of all of South Carolina’s pregnancies are unplanned of which 29 percent result in abortions; and in 2010, the general public funded the medical expenses associated with nearly 80 percent of the state’s unintended pregnancies, costing over $400 million.