A new campaign sponsored by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is educating women on emergency contraception and urging them to obtain an advance prescription of the drug.
The goal is to encourage doctors to ask women of childbearing age if they would like an advance prescription for the morning-after pill "at every visit," said Dr. Douglas Laube, ACOG's president-elect and chair of the ob-gyn department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. That way, if a woman has unprotected sex or contraception fails, she can take steps to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.
Naturally, the campaign is catching a lot of flak from anti-choicers who call it “irresponsible.� But what could be more responsible than having a form of back-up birth control just in case?
ACOG President Michael T. Mennuti says, "With the Ask me. campaign, ACOG is stepping up our efforts to address this country's high rate of unintended pregnancy. Nearly half (49%) of the more than 6 million pregnancies that occur each year are unplanned...Family planning is an important issue for our specialty, and EC is an excellent contraceptive option for millions of women who want to prevent an unintended pregnancy."
Mennuit continued that the campaign is particularly important because of the accessibility problem with EC. Many women can’t get to their docs in time (EC has to be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex) and women who don’t have insurance may not have a regular doctor.
The doctor-led initiative was created in response to the FDA’s continued trumping of politics over science.
"Many of us feel the FDA's actions have been unfair, unkind, unconscionable, unsafe and biased," said Dr. Iffath Hoskins, chair of the ob-gyn department at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Word.
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I had a doctor do this for me in 2004. I went to Planned Parenthood while in college for a regular check-up and she handed me an undated prescription for EC and told me to keep it in my wallet. I ended up having to use it for a scared friend and I still consider myself lucky to have received it. (Of course none of that would have been necessary had it been OTC, but still.)
Doctors recommend it. Yay. Now, about the damn pharmacists... Because even if you can get your doctor, if you have insurance, if your local planned parenthood hasn't been shut down or bombed, try getting the white coat to fill the scrip.
I'm waiting for the day we hear about someone on campus or one among a group of friends who keeps an EC stash. The way girls used to know who secretly did abortions, they'll pass around the name of someone who can shell out EC from their apartment. I'm not advocating this at all. My point is, making access to pills and abortion doesn't end them. It just makes it harder and more dangerous to get.
I have a prescription for birth control that I don't use specifically for myself and friends who need it.
MPN, if you're getting your emergency contraception ahead of time, you can always get it by mail or find a pharmacy that will serve you. I think this is an excellent campaign and it emphasises the fact that these pharmacists are pushing women into pregnancies instead of preventing them. It's shameful.
OTC emergency contraceptives here in the UK are fantastic. It must help a lot with unplanned pregnancies.
I mean if you have contraceptive failure on Friday night you used to have to wait until Monday to see a doctor (unless you are willing to wait about 6 hours in an emergency room). Pharmacists are really good with advice about how to take you next lot of pills too.
The reality is that there will always be a need for contraceptives and for access to abortion by women. No amount of laws are going to stop women from using either one.
In my youth, I lived in the times when abortion was illegal and contraceptives were issued only to married women. Harsh laws and penalties did not stop women from getting abortions or stop single women from trying to get contraceptives. Many women slowly bleed to death, naked and alone, and many unwanted babies were left to die in trash cans. Damn the "legalities" and kissing the ass of the Christian fascists!
I will not apologize for demanding the right to own my own body nor of defending the same rights for my daughter and granddaughter to these haters of females now in power.
I DO advocate dispensing EC and other contraceptives (and abortions when they become once again illegal) in an "under ground railroad" system similar to the one that slaves used to obtain freedom but where women and sympathetic men can help females to obtain contraceptives and abortions safely.
Do I see a start here? Hurrah!
Actually, a standing prescription for EC, regardless of the fact that I plan on undergoing surgical sterilization after this pregnancy, is a non-negotiable in a doctor for me.
Out of curiosity, are there any women interested in old-school 70s feminist self-care? With abortion so restricted even where it's technically available, I was wondering about the possibility of getting a crew of devoted women together to build menstrual extractors to send out. They'd only cost about $20 each, max, and are extremely safe. It would be sort of a women's liberation and crafting bee.
Somedays I sit back and dream of starting free, volunteer women run quinacrine sterilization clinics. It breaks my heart every time I hear of a young woman denied a sterilization because "she'll change her mind" only to become pregnant and face that choice. Why do we do this to ourselves as a society?!
I cant recount the number of times I've had to chalk up my EC (which my gyno gave me an ample refills for)to friends who have needed it in very desperate circumstances. Yay for this being a standard practice!
Yes, An Old Woman, you definitely see that sort of thing here. I, for one, am willing to get EC for myself or ANY woman in need. Further, should things not go well in this mid-term election, and Roe v. Wade is overturned, myself and Ms. Scarlett (my car) are ready to help ferry young women to abortion-friendly states. I'm still going to fight, but I'm ready for a "By any means necessary" approach to this thing. Never go back!
But what could be more responsible than having a form of back-up birth control just in case?
Sounds nice, if you're diligent about observing the "Use by" date on the bottle, and you can find a doctor and pharmacist willing to assume the potential liability from failure of superannuated drugs.