Women in New York can buy contraceptives without a prescription.

The state’s health commissioner signed a standing order Tuesday allowing pharmacists to prescribe hormonal contraceptives without a doctor’s order.

Last year, the state Legislature passed a bill that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law authorizing the change.

Supporters argue it’s intended to clear hurdles for most women eager to gain access to preventive health care.

“Up until now, you could not walk into a pharmacy and be able to purchase contraception to meet your various health care needs,” Hochul said Tuesday at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences’ College Parkside Pharmacy.

But that’s all changed, according to the state’s top doctor.

“Basically, what we’ve done today by me signing this order is: if you come to New York and you want to have contraception, I’ve issued a prescription for you,” Department of Health Commissioner James McDonald said.

Effective immediately, the order requires pharmacists to conduct patient evaluations before giving the stamp of approval.

They’ll go through a Department of Health-mandated questionnaire discussing past and family medical history.

Then, the pair will decide what works: a birth control pill, vaginal ring or a patch.

“We are seeing in our health care system, less and less primary care providers, less and less access to health care in general. So when you think of the urban areas and the rural areas, specifically pharmacies are one of the few constants that are very available,” Democrat Assemblyman John McDonald of Cohoes said.

A pharmacist by trade, and the state health commissioner’s brother, McDonald argued he and his colleagues already perform similar prescriptive duties like providing coronavirus vaccines or naloxone, the drug that reverses opioid overdoses.

“This is not a pharmacy infringing on other health care providers. It’s actually supporting health care providers,” he added.

“Maybe a young woman is becoming sexually active to have that connection between a primary medical provider and to start that conversation — beyond the issue of birth control, you have the issue of sexually transmitted diseases and all kinds of other things in an appointment where sexuality is being discussed,” Republican Marybeth Walsh, Assembly of Ballston said.

The order also says if able, an individual’s insurance company must cover up to a 12-month supply. It also applies to people who don’t live in New York.

“You walk into a New York state pharmacy, show them your insurance card and just say to the pharmacists, ‘Hey, I’m here to see what I can do as far as getting contraception. You’re welcome like everyone else,’” McDonald said.

Hochul said the move is important in a country where abortions are no longer legal nationally.

“This will dramatically increase access to this for women, partially at a time when women are feeling discouraged and not listened to and powerless!” Hochul said.

Although New York has some of the toughest reproductive rights and abortion laws on the books, the governor argues it is important to expand access, especially in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.