MONTREAL - Women in Quebec will now be able to get birth control from a nurse without seeing a doctor.
Nurses will be able to hand out six-month orders for contraceptives including pills, patches and injections.
Quebec, like most other provinces, has a shortage of doctors and provincial health officials say nurses are often more accessible than a physician.
Nurses and other health professionals who endorsed the changes say it should reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions.
Quebec nurses will be able to prescribe a six-month supply of contraceptive pills but women will need a doctor's exam to get the prescriptions renewed.
Two years ago, Quebec began to allow school nurses to prescribe birth control pills in an effort to reduce teen pregnancies.
