Women’s health and equality groups are at odds with the peak body for doctors as to whether the contraceptive pill should be made available in Australia over the counter.

It follows a commitment by Victoria’s opposition to make the contraceptive pill available over-the-counter from pharmacists if the coalition is elected in November. Under the plan, women would be required to visit their doctor in the first instance but able to obtain future courses of the pill from a pharmacist.

Plan International Australia, a part of the International Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Consortium, supported the proposal, saying access to contraception curbs unwanted pregnancies and saves lives.

“We welcome this policy as one way to improve access to sexual and reproductive health services for young women, so they have control over their bodies,” the organisation’s CEO, Susanne Legena, said.

“We know from our work that young women who can access contraception and can choose when and how many children they have are more likely to be educated and economically empowered.”

Her comments were echoed by Marie Stopes Australia CEO Michelle Thompson. Statistics cited by Marie Stopes, a national family planning organisation, state one in two women will experience an unplanned pregnancy in their lifetime.

“We welcome any move to increase timely access to contraception which this initiative seems to do,” Thompson said.

“We fully support the involvement of the GP in initially assessing patients for their eligibility to be prescribed the pill.”

But the president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Tony Bartone, said the AMA did not support any policy to make contraception available over-the-counter, even with the requirement that women see a doctor in the first instance.

The current system was “working so well,” he said, with women currently required to have a script each time they obtain the pill. Prescriptions remain current for one year.

The proposed policy “raises a number of red flags,” Bartone said.

“Really the most significant issue is the fragmentation of care that would be involved,” he said. “There would be a missed opportunity for preventative health screening and checks that go along with going to a doctor for a repeat script.

“It could also lead to women delaying presentation to a doctor.”

But the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists spokeswoman for sexual and reproductive health, Associate Prof Kirsten Black, said there were other opportunities, such as during pap smears, for preventative health checks and conversations to occur.

New Zealand had successfully moved to make the pill available over-the-counter in 2017, and she said it was reasonable for Australia to do the same with the right checks in place, such as well-trained pharmacists.

“It reduces a barrier to contraception and Australia does have quite a high rate of unintended pregnancy,” she said. “Like anything in life you have to weight up risks and benefits and the access this would provide would outweigh any risks. Very few women, only around 2%, have a medial contraindication to taking the pill.”

Victoria’s shadow health minister, Mary Wooldridge, said women were “completely capable of being in charge of their own contraception”.

In 2015 Australia’s drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s Advisory Committee on Medicines and Chemicals Scheduling, considered whether the contraceptive pill should be made available over-the-counter, on the condition that family history of heart problems, hypertension and stroke, were disclosed and blood pressure recorded.

But the TGA decided against any changes, because oral contraceptives may potentially mask serious health issues, and because pharmacists could not conduct a comprehensive health check.