Women would no longer have to make a trip to the doctor to get a prescription for birth control pills or other forms of hormonal contraception under a bill that gained approval from negotiators in the House and Senate on Tuesday.
Under Senate Bill 513, women could instead obtain the contraception directly from a pharmacist after filling out a risk-assessment survey. The measure aims to increase access to birth control, particularly in areas where there is a shortage of health care providers, and reduce unintended pregnancies.
While key lawmakers want to make it easier to get birth control, they are also trying to make it harder to get prescription painkillers, which are fueling growing drug addiction and overdose deaths in Hawaii.
Under Senate Bill 505, which also gained
approval by key members of the House and Senate on Tuesday, initial prescriptions of the drugs would be limited to seven days. Certain exceptions would be made for patients who have just undergone surgery, are battling cancer or meet other criteria.
The bill also would require prescribers to counsel patients on the risks of the medication and alternative treatment options for pain, and to obtain signed consent forms from patients.
Groups such as the Hawaii Medical Association, the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Hawaii raised concerns that physicians could be charged with felonies for making a mistake or not complying with the measure. But language in the bill is expected to be amended to remove that possibility.
The bills will now go to the full House and Senate for final floor votes. If they are passed, they will be sent to Gov. David Ige for him to sign, veto or let pass without his signature.
Both measures were introduced by Sen. Roz Baker (D, West Maui-South Maui), chairwoman of the Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee. The measures are also part of this year’s package of bills backed by the Women’s Legislative Caucus.
“I’m sorry I don’t have my nasty-woman cup with me,” joked Baker as the bills were passed out of their respective conference committees — a reference to President Donald Trump’s comments about Hillary Clinton being a “nasty woman” during the presidential campaign, which has since become a feminist rallying cry of sorts.
Lawmakers are scrambling this week to come to a final agreement on dozens of bills that have so far survived this legislative session as an end-of-the-week deadline looms for scheduling bills for final votes in the full House and Senate. The legislative session is scheduled to close May 4.
The birth control and opioid bills emerged relatively early from their conference committees. Priority bills often don’t obtain final agreement until closer to the deadline.
Lawmakers also gave final approval Tuesday to a bill that would preserve federally backed flood insurance for about 60,000 policyholders in Hawaii.
That issue dates from 2013, when the Legislature approved a measure that eliminated the need for building permits for nonresidential agricultural buildings. The idea was to help Hawaii farmers and ranchers by relaxing the permitting requirements for structures such as shade houses, storage sheds, greenhouses and other agricultural buildings.
However, the new law was contrary to the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Program.
That program makes flood insurance coverage available to communities as long as they adopt regulations designed to minimize flood risk, but federal officials were concerned Hawaii’s new law might allow property owners to build in flood-prone areas.
That triggered a warning from the Federal Emergency Management Agency last year that unless the state amended or repealed the law, the agency would begin proceedings to start canceling flood insurance policies in Hawaii.
This year House Water and Land Committee Chairman Ryan Yamane introduced House Bill 1418, which would require the counties to certify that each new structure built under the 2013 law does not run afoul of federal flood insurance program requirements.
“Hawaii’s property owners can trust that their NFIP federal flood insurance will be protected and will remain in place, protecting them from future flood disasters,” said Yamane (D, Mililani-Waipio-
Waikele) in a written statement.
HB 1418 now goes to the governor, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
