Study: Women Often Misinformed, Unable to Get Plan B
SOURCE:
Pam Semler, of Fairfax, Va., works the register at DMC Pharmacy in Chantilly, Va. on Oct. 20, 2008. The pharmacy bills itself as "pro-life" and carries no contraceptive products. Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy is among at least seven pharmacies across the nation that is refusing as a matter of faith to sell contraceptives of any kind, even if a person has a prescription.
Emergency contraception—such as the recently embattled Plan B pill—is difficult to access even for women who should be able to purchase it over the counter, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Feministing summarizes the study’s findings nicely:
Researchers posing as 17-year-old women called pharmacies around the country to ask about getting EC. First off, nearly 20% of the callers were told straight-up that they couldn’t get EC that day–whether because it wasn’t in stock or they didn’t want to give it out or maybe the person who answered the phone hadn’t been trained yet. Regardless, tough luck for the caller who’d really, really like to try to avoid getting pregnant ASAP. Once the callers revealed their age, almost 20% of pharmacies claimed that 17-year-olds could not get the drug–despite the fact that, um, they damn well can. Furthermore, the study found that women in poorer neighborhoods were more than 60% more likely to be misinformed than those in more affluent neighborhoods.
The study indicates what many advocates have already voiced—women, and particularly the young and poor, face obstacles when trying to obtain emergency contraception. This week, several young women shared their stories of pharmacists who don’t approve of the pill using tactics to intimidate them.
“I felt like [the pharmacist] was trying to make it harder, unpleasant,” one woman said.
(What You Should Know: Obama Administration to Keep Emergency Contraception Off Store Shelves)
Earlier this month, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius overruled the Food and Drug Administration’s decision that emergency contraception should be available over the counter and without age restriction.
Brian Stewart is the journalism and online communications manager at Campus Progress.
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