Stateline.org, of the Pew Research Center, has a good review of the various actions taken in different states in regard to making emergency contraception more widely available. Some states have moved decisively to make the medication easily obtainable; others have seen roadblocks thrown up by conservative governors or legislators. One state – Wisconsin – announced last week it will be suing the FDA to force approval of OTC availability of Plan B.

While the Food and Drug Administration delays a decision on whether to allow the “morning-after pill” to be sold over the counter, officials in several states are mounting efforts to make the emergency contraceptive easier to get.

In recent weeks, the stakes have increased in the contentious policy debate over the pill, which is sold under the name Plan B, with four pharmacists losing their jobs in Illinois, state attorneys preparing a lawsuit against the FDA in Wisconsin and tempers flaring in Massachusetts. . . .

In Illinois, four Walgreens pharmacists who said they wouldn’t fill prescriptions for the morning-after pill were suspended without pay because of a one-of-a-kind Illinois rule put in place by Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) requiring pharmacies to sell the drug.

Three of the pharmacists filed a complaint Dec. 7 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, arguing their employer “effectively fired” them for their moral beliefs. Blagojevich’s order requires all pharmacies that sell birth control pills also to stock the morning-after pill, a set of two pills that contain a higher dose of hormones than standard oral contraceptives. . . .

Right now, Illinois is the only state with such a requirement, but it won’t be for long. California lawmakers pushed through a similar law, effective in January, that differs in one key aspect: It also would give pharmacists with moral objections to dispensing the pill a way to opt out. The compromise won the endorsement of pharmacists, though the more ardent anti-abortion groups still objected.

Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (D) last week took the first steps toward filing a lawsuit to force the FDA to let the drug be sold without a prescription. Under Wisconsin law, Lautenschlager needs the permission of Gov. Jim Doyle (D) before suing the federal government. Doyle gave his approval on Thursday, Dec. 9. . . .

As a legal matter, she said the FDA’s repeated delays – without an outright rejection of the application — are “political” and violate the federal Administrative Practice Act, which governs how federal agencies must operate.

Next week, Massachusetts will begin allowing pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill without a doctor’s prescription. The Democratic-controlled Legislature overrode a July veto by Gov. Mitt Romney (R) to make the Bay State the eighth to let patients buy the drug without visiting a physician. The law allows specially trained pharmacists who partner with doctors to write and fill the prescriptions themselves.

It also requires hospitals to offer the drug to rape victims. Earlier this week, Romney’s administration ruled that the mandate did not apply to Catholic hospitals, touching off a furor among politicians who say the administration’s stance undermines the purpose of the law. But Romney reversed course Dec. 9 after speaking to his lawyers and said that the law will be applied to all hospitals, according to the Boston Globe.

Legislators in New York didn’t have the votes to overcome Republican Gov. George Pataki’s veto of a similar measure there, but the legislation did clear the Republican-controlled Senate before ending up on Pataki’s desk.

In reaction to the emergency contraception controversy, the American Medical Association passed a resolution this summer calling on pharmacists to fill all prescriptions. It even suggested that, if no pharmacist within 30 miles of a patient would fill a script, the patient should be able to buy the drug from the doctor instead. . . .

Mississippi enacted a broad law meant to protect pharmacists and other health-care professionals who have moral objections to administering certain drugs, including the morning-after pill. It joins Arkansas, Georgia and South Dakota in giving pharmacists the right to refuse to dispense emergency contraception.

In Indiana and Texas, lawmakers passed measures designed to limit Medicaid funding for emergency contraception.

And when Arkansas legislators told health insurance companies they had to cover contraception, the lawmakers explicitly excluded emergency contraception.

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