NRA: pill for minors only with consent of parent or guardian

Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna signed the regulation on April 29, and it goes into effect on May 1. On that day, the pilot program was to start, that is - Polish women were to be able to buy the so-called day-after pill without having to present a doctor's prescription in pharmacies. However, the program will launch only formally - probably only after "May Day" will pharmacies begin to submit applications, necessary to sign contracts (this process will also take time). However, the position of the pharmacists' self-government calls into question an important part of the pilot program, concerning protection against unwanted pregnancy of underage women. The Health Ministry has failed to convince pharmacists of its interpretation of the stipulations that the "activities" to be performed, as part of the pilot, by a pharmacist are not a health service.

- The Supreme Pharmaceutical Council takes the position that the provision of emergency contraception to a minor patient on the basis of a pharmacist's decision requires the consent of a parent or guardian, says a communiqué published on the website of the pharmacists' self-government on the eve of the regulation's entry into force.

According to the public consultation report, the ministry argues that the pharmacist's actions provided for in the regulation, namely interviewing and issuing a prescription, "are neither a pharmaceutical service nor a health benefit. What then are they? Other "than pharmaceutical care, pharmaceutical service and other professional activities of a pharmacist," a category of activities permitted to be conducted in a pharmacy open to the public. This statement, incidentally, did not prevent the Ministry of Health from posting a banner on the X platform that reads: "Emergency contraception as part of pharmaceutical service. Pilot is launched."

However, in a position paper published Tuesday, the pharmacists' self-government, citing the provisions of laws and regulations - including the regulation introducing the pilot - as well as the provisions of the Code of Ethics of the Pharmacist of the Republic of Poland and the joint position of the self-governments of the health professions agreed a dozen days earlier, confirms that the pilot program actually concerns a health benefit, and that this can be provided to minors only with the knowledge and consent of their parents and legal guardians.