New Hampshire moved closer to becoming the first U.S. state to offer ivermectin without a prescription on March 16.
By a 183—159 vote, New Hampshire’s Republican-dominated House of Representatives approved HB1022, which would allow pharmacists to dispense ivermectin under a standing order, meaning that anyone could go to a pharmacist and get human-grade ivermectin.
State Republican lawmaker Leah Cushman, a nurse and sponsor of the legislation, told The Epoch Times in January that she “had absolutely no doubt lives will be saved if human-grade ivermectin was available to COVID patients.”
“House Republicans sent a clear message today that we support expanding options for the treatment of COVID,” Cushman told The Epoch Times.
She said its approval by the House also means people won’t have to resort to buying human-grade ivermectin from a foreign country in order to exercise their right to use the medication to treat their symptoms.
Cushman noted that the provision in the measure that safeguards doctors from any potential discipline—or an investigation by the state’s licensing board—for prescribing ivermectin for COVID-19 takes “some of the political pressure” off them.
The legislation still has to win final approval from the Senate, which is also Republican-controlled, and thus far, its Republican lawmakers have shown they believe in the state’s “Live Free or Die” motto when it comes to treatment choices about COVID-19.
Similar measures are pending legislative approval in Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Arizona, and Alaska.
In New Hampshire, the ivermectin legislation is one of several COVID-related proposals led by Republicans.
The House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee, which narrowly voted “ought to pass” on the ivermectin measure, also approved a proposed ban on the enforcement of any federal vaccine mandate and rejected legislation that would have added the COVID-19 vaccine to immunization requirements for public school students.
