NEWS
• Take this little quiz for us. Can you
locate Broadway Plaza? Can you locate
Kesey Square? End of quiz. The obvious
answers make us wonder why the city
staff and Eugene City Council are so slow
in officially designating the storied
square in the center of Eugene as Kesey
Square. The council will consider this in
the fall, and it has opened a comment
period on the name change. Write
mayorcouncilandcitymanager@
ci.eugene.or.us or tell them in person
Monday, July 10 and July 24, at Harris
Hall in the Lane County Public Service
Building, 125 E. 8th. It really is time to
make Kesey Square Kesey Square, catch
the momentum of the activities planned
there and wipe out any glimmers of the
old misguided plan to fill the public
square with a building.
• Kudos to the Eugene City Council
for appointing Jennifer Yeh to the Ward 4
position recently vacated by George
Poling.
• A remarkable collection of juried art
will be shown and sold July 2-4 at Art and
the Vineyard in Alton Baker Park. Ninety-
six artists from eight states will be selling
from their booths along the river. More
than a third of the artists are new to Art
and the Vineyard this year. It all opens at
10 am, July 2, and closes with fireworks
July 4.
• “Public records law is the foundation
for informing Oregonians about their
government and the world around them.”
That’s how a recent email from the Oregon
Territory Society of Professional
Journalists kicks off. SPJ is pushing to
make Oregon government more
transparent, and House Bill 2101-A would
give the public more notice of bills that
would increase secrecy and set up a
15-member Oregon Sunshine committee
to update and simplify Oregon’s
confusing array of more than 550
records-law exemptions. For the first time
there would be a public process for
review — and potential repeal — of
some of those exemptions. But the bill
has not been scheduled for a hearing by
the Joint Ways and Means Committee in
the Oregon Legislature. Call your state
rep and push for more sunshine in
Oregon government. (Full disclosure,
EW’s editor is on the Oregon Territory SPJ
board and EW has had to fight for public
records.)
• If you want your president elected
by popular vote instead of by the
electoral college, you should call or email
Senate President Peter Courtney and
Sen. Ginny Burdick right away. That’s the
advice the City Club of Eugene heard
June 23 from Elizabeth Donley and
Eileen Reavey, two leaders of Oregon’s
grassroots efforts to get the National
Popular Vote Interstate Compact passed
this year in the state Legislature.
Courtney seems to be the biggest
obstacle to getting HB 2927 considered
by the full Senate. So far, he won’t allow
Burdick to hold public hearings and
move the bill out of the Senate Rules
Committee for a vote on the Senate floor.
10
June 29, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
BY CORINNE BOYER
SEARCHING FOR PHARMACIST-
PRESCRIBED BIRTH CONTROL
Law allowing birth control without a prescription rolls out slowly in Eugene
I
n 2015, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill allowing phar-
macists to provide consultation and to dispense birth con-
trol to women who do not have a prescription. Sponsored
by Rep. Knute Buehler, a Republican physician from Bend,
the bill was signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown and took
effect Jan. 1, 2016.
Though the law clearly states that pharmacists may “pre-
scribe and dispense” contraceptives to women over the age of
18 after a consultation, Eugene Weekly had difficulties finding
participating pharmacies in Eugene.
Before pharmacists provide birth control without a prescrip-
tion, they are required to undergo specialized training through
Oregon State University, which takes six to 10 hours. The train-
ing is ultimately up to the individual pharmacist at participating
pharmacies.
EW made a dozen calls and visited five pharmacies in Eu-
gene. Policies at corporate-owned pharmacies prevented phar-
macists from commenting on the law, which has been in place
for a year, but off the record, a pharmacist told EW, “We don’t
have time to do those consultations.”
When asked if pharmacists provided consultations at a Rite
Aid, the pharmacist on call says he only knew of one place in
Lane County that provided that service. Visits to other local
pharmacies yielded a similar answer.
BiMart, whose corporate headquarters are located in Eugene,
does not provide contraception without a prescription. One of its
pharmacists suggested EW try a local pharmacy “who does little
things like that,” referring to the birth control consultation. The
corporate office did not return calls before press time.
A visit and calls made to three local Rite Aids found that none
of the pharmacies provide birth control consultation. However,
Ashley Flower, a senior manager in public relations at Rite Aid,
writes in an email that Rite Aid is participating. “Most of our
pharmacists are trained on this regulation and able to dispense
per the regulation (the exception being pharmacists that are just
onboarding with Rite Aid and in the process of being trained).”
Flower adds, “We are taking your findings and using this as
an opportunity to revisit this topic with our pharmacy teams to
ensure they are able to relay the right information to our custom-
ers going forward.”
Paige Clark, a pharmacist who also leads the OSU certification
course, says that Costco, Albertsons/Safeway and Rite Aid are all on
board. “They are all almost entirely trained to provide this service,”
Clark says.
And in contrast to EW’s findings, she says, “Pharmacists are do-
ing a great job, thousands of pharmacists are certified to do this. The
very first prescription was written in Eugene area.”
One local pharmacy looking into the possibility of providing
birth control consultations is Hirons, according to its owner Steve
Hirons. He says the service is beneficial and there is a great need
for it — the pharmacy with locations near the University of Oregon
campus serves a large college student population.
River Road Health Mart is a local pharmacy is owned and op-
erated by pharmacist Brian Marr. After completing consultation
training, he says his business wrote about one prescription a day.
Marr says the law was intended to expand access to health care for
women, but his pharmacy encountered a problem after it began con-
sultations because the law does not allow consultation appointments
to be made. They must be drop-in only.
“We have two pharmacists on staff, and we wanted to make it
more convenient because if someone shows up unexpectedly we
are required to help them,” he says. So the pharmacy began asking
when customers needing a consultation may come in. “But we got in
trouble for that saying it’s too close to an appointment,” Marr says.
Rep. Buehler says the Oregon law is being recognized nationally.
“It’s a model for the nation at this point,” he says. Other states are
examining similar legislation, he adds.
Buehler says he sponsored this legislation to expand women’s
access to health care. He tells EW that having this kind of access to
birth control, which is essentially over-the-counter, “has profound
and positive effects on women’s health.”
According to Buehler, “In other countries, and in limited studies
around the United States that have done something similar at least in
trials, unintended pregnancy decreased 25 percent.”
Women needing birth control services from pharmacies should
call to make sure the pharmacy nearest them offers the consultation
services.
River Road Health Mart, Albertsons on 30th Avenue and all Fred
Meyer pharmacies provide birth control consultation for a fee. CVS
pharmacies say they will begin providing the service in the fall.