~sigh~ i wish we could catch up.

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

"One of Britain's largest supermarket chains plans to give teen-agers the morning-after contraceptive pill for free as part of a national effort to reduce the number of teen pregnancies.... The morning-after pill is a high dose of birth control pill taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. It is already available free with a prescription, but many women do not want to wait for a doctor's appointment and buy it over the counter for a fee."

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20020318_489.html

(btw, you can contact the store http://www.tesco.com/ if you'd like to let them know how you feel about it.)

Comments

[arachne.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, UK pro-lifers are trying to get emergency contraception banned based on a 2-centuries-old (roughly) law.

Linkage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1813000/1813909.stm

[one-song-glory.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful idea! Now I'll grant, I've never been in the situation that I've needed emergency contraception, but I can't even tell you how many times I've held a friend's hand while waiting in a Planned Parenthood clinic because "the condom broke last night!". The runaround some places put you through is absolutely preposterous. I'm of the opinion that the morning-after pill should be easily available, wherever you go.

[erynchrista.livejournal.com]

I, too, am for that idea. I've been worried myself at times and I found out that the morning after pills aren't all that cheap, unfortunately, unless your income is super low and the local health department will give it to you at practically no cost. My friend had to take it at one point and it cost her nearly $200! Granted, this was a couple of years ago, so I'm sure things change, but still....

[therealocelot.livejournal.com]

I'd be a bit worried about offering the morning after pill with no prescription necessary from a health point of view. I don't have any problem with it being low cost and easily available, but the idea of it being available for indiscriminate use makes me a bit nervous.

Of course, most OTC drugs can cause problems of some sort or another.

[linzbinz.livejournal.com]

In Washington, you can get the Morning-After pill for $30 at almost all Bartells and Walgreens drug stores, without a prescription... How cool is that?

[urania.livejournal.com]

I think dispensing w/o a prescription is OK if and only if it's done with information/"conseling" from the pharmacist--not counseling as in "how do you feel about this," but side effect counseling, counseling on "here's what to do if you think you're having a bad reaction, here's what's normal to expect, here's how long it's effective for, are you sure you understand the instructions?" etc. Pharmacists are really pretty well qualified for that, or so I'm led to believe..

but just indiscriminately making it available is, yes, a potential Bad Thing in my humble opinion. But i agree that the policy of having it for free if necessary is certainly in the right direction.