Through the Interdisciplinary Research Leaders program, Garner-Ford is participating in a fellowship to conduct research. In partnership with UC Berkeley, and UC San Diego, Garner-Ford is implementing a community research program in Tulare County to increase access to birth control in pharmacies.

Rural communities nationally and in California experience sexual and reproductive health inequities, with higher adolescent birth rates than urban and suburban areas, declines in access to formal sex education, and inadequate access to healthcare, including contraceptive care. Pharmacies are an important source of healthcare in rural America, particularly as pharmacists’ scope of practice expands to include prescribing medication, chronic disease management, and preventive health services. In California, pharmacists can prescribe hormonal contraception directly to patients of any age, allowing for a single point of access for consultation, prescription, and receipt of medication. However, the team’s recent research found that only 11% of California pharmacies offered this service. This project will investigate the barriers and facilitators to realizing the promise of pharmacists as family planning providers in rural and frontier California, through research on the availability of pharmacist-prescribed contraception, women’s knowledge of and interest in this service, and decision-making processes of pharmacies regarding implementation. Together, these novel data will point to solutions to increase availability of pharmacist-prescribed contraception within California and the many other states that are in the various stages of considering a similar model, passing legislation, and implementing this service.