Tag Archive for "emergency contraception"

Posts Tagged emergency contraception

Plan B comes to some New York City Public Schools

New York City’s Department of Education is launching a pilot program making the morning after pill available to high school aged girls. The CATCH (Connecting Adolescents To Comprehensive Health) program will make emergency accessible for girls as young as 14 without parental consent.

New York City’s public schools may be be the first in the nation to introduce such a program:

The National Association of School Nurses could cite no other school district supplying Plan B.

So far, during an unpublicized pilot program in five city schools last year, 567 students received Plan B tablets and 580 students received Reclipsen birth-control pills, the city Department of Health told The Post.

This fall, students can also get Depo-Provera, a birth-control drug injected once ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Are pharmacists lying to teens about emergency contraception?

Just in time for Back Up Your Birth Control day tomorrow, here’s some disturbing emergency contraception news. Young women being misinformed about emergency contraception by pharmacists is, sadly, not news. And a new study suggests that it could actually be deliberate. MSNBC reports:

For the new study, researchers posing as either a 17-year-old girl or a doctor seeking help for a 17-year-old girl called every pharmacy in each of five U.S. cities asking about the availability and accessibility of emergency contraception.

All callers asked questions from a script. The first question was whether the pharmacy had the medication in stock — 80 percent of the 943 pharmacies said they did. Next, the researcher posing as a teen asked if ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Judge rules pharmacists can refuse to sell emergency contraception

In yet another victory for “religious conscience” at the expense of women’s health, a federal judge struck down Washington State’s law requiring pharmacies to stock emergency contraception. The AP reports:

Washington state cannot force pharmacies to sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying the state’s true goal was to suppress religious objections by druggists–not to promote timely access to the medicines for people who need them.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton heard closing arguments earlier this month in a lawsuit that claimed state rules violate the constitutional rights of pharmacists by requiring them to dispense such medicine. The state requires pharmacies to dispense any medication for which there is a community need and to stock ...

Washington state cannot force pharmacies to sell ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

This Week: Protest Health and Human Services Decision to Restrict Morning-After Pill Access

This Thursday, New York Women’s Liberation has organized an action in NYC to protest the Health & Human Services (HHS) decision to restrict morning-after pill (emergency contraception or EC) access.

You’ll remember that Kathleen Sebelius and the administration killed our hopes that the decade-long political debacle around EC was finally coming to a close by refusing to allow EC to be available over-the-counter. Read her statement here, and the FDA’s unprecedented statement opposing the decision here. Since then, feminists and women’s health advocates decried the decision as putting politics over science and health. The pill is currently only available without a doctor’s prescription to women ages 17 and older, and is kept ...

You’ll remember that Kathleen Sebelius ...

By Maya Dusenbery • 12 years ago

Pharmacists routinely misinform young women about whether they can get emergency contraception

On the heels of the outrageous, unprecedented HHS decision to overrule the FDA’s recommendation to make Plan B fully available without a prescription comes a new study revealing just how inaccessible emergency contraception is–even for those women who theoretically already have over-the-counter access.

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. ...

By Vanessa • 12 years ago

What We Missed

Pics via NYT.

Leymah Gbowee, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman were (officially) awarded the Nobel Peace Price on Saturday.

WOW. Lowe’s and tons of other companies have apparently pulled advertising from the reality show All-American Muslim after caving in to a blatantly bigoted campaign.

At Feministing Community, Shaunna Thomas and Nita Chaudhary are launching a project where they’re collecting stories from readers who have had problems accessing emergency contraception. Share yours!

On The Issues (a feminist mag I work with) on supporting the sexual health of sex workers.

Pics via NYT.

Leymah Gbowee, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Tawakkol Karman were (officially) awarded the Nobel Peace Price on Saturday.

WOW. Lowe’s and tons of other companies have apparently pulled ...

By Vanessa • 12 years ago

Breaking: Sebelius overrules FDA decision on emergency contraception

You have got to be kidding me:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the scientists at the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday and refused to allow emergency contraceptives to be sold as freely as aspirin, setting up just the kind of clash between politics and science that President Obama had promised to avoid.

Under the law, Ms. Sebelius has the authority to overrule the agency, according to an F.D.A. spokeswoman, but no health secretary has ever done so before. Her decision continues a history of political meddling in the agency’s decisions regarding emergency contraceptives that tarnished the drug administration’s credibility during the Bush administration. Ms. Sibelius’s decision to overrule ...

You have got to be kidding me:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the scientists at the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday and refused to allow emergency contraceptives to be sold ...

By Lori Adelman • 12 years ago

Breaking: FDA may approve EC to be sold on drugstore shelves

Via our very own Jessica Valenti comes the news that the Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce tomorrow that it will approve making Plan B (the brand name for emergency contraception or the morning after pill) available for purchase on drugstore shelves. I think I join a lot of my colleagues in the reproductive justice community in saying that we’re all waiting with bated breath to make sure this optimistic prediction comes true!

From Jess:

The President & CEO of Reproductive Health Technologies Project says “While FDA has toyed with women’s health before, all signs point to them doing the right thing at last and letting the science dictate their ...

Via our very own Jessica Valenti comes the news that the Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce tomorrow that it will approve making Plan B (the brand name for ...