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New smartphone app that delivers birth control raises questions

A new app that allows women and teenage girls to get birth control prescriptions without visiting a doctor is raising questions.

The app is called Nurx and became available in North Carolina within the last month.

[LINK: Nurx App]

“The greater goal is to improve access for patients, but also to improve the efficiency of our healthcare system,” said Dr. Jessica Knox, the company’s medical director who spoke to Channel 9 over the phone about the app.

Once patients downloads the app, they fill out a health survey. They will then talk to a doctor who is licensed in North Carolina about their medical history, mostly through instant messages on the app.

As long as the patient is healthy, she can get birth control delivered to right away.

Knox said the company doesn’t have a problem treating teenage girls without their parents’ knowledge.

“For us, it’s really a risk mitigation sort of strategy to provide education and tools for young women,” Knox said.

In North Carolina, a minor does not need parental consent when it comes to preventing pregnancy.

[READ MORE: State policies on sex education in schools]

Knox said most of their youngest patients are around 16 years old.

Parents who support the idea of a birth control app said they would still like to be involved.

“Just hear them. Whenever they want to sit down and talk, don’t lash out on them, just hear everything that they have to say,” parent Jaston Hill.

But some parents didn’t like the idea of a birth control app.

“It promotes them to be, you know, out there and doing things they probably shouldn’t be doing,” parent Carol McDonald said.

The app is available in 14 other states and the service costs $15 a month.

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