If the condom breaks Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night, there’s a good chance that you can see a doctor and have an emergency contraceptive prescribed within the next twenty four hours. Probably sooner.
But what happens if Friday night’s escapades land you with an unsure Saturday morning plagued by not just a hangover, but also uncertainty about your sexual exploits of the previous evening. Were you safe? Did you use a condom? Who the hell is this guy in your bed?
Emergency contraceptives such as Plan B are uncannily effective, lowering the risk of pregnancy to about 1.1 percent from about 8 percent following unprotected sex. But since Plan B does not work if a woman is already pregnant, and the mode of action is to prevent ovulation and make the condition of the woman’s body less conducive to conception, the drug is most effective the sooner it is taken after the sexual act.
So let’s make a timeline. Friday night — engage in unprotected sex. Monday morning — dial up your doctor for a prescription. That’s a good sixty hours at the very least. But after trudging through a 15,000-page application, the Women’s Capital Corporation is one step closer to making Plan B available over the counter so women can access the pill while it will be most effective.
Backed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Women’s Capital Corporation is hoping to have the pills available over the counter sometime next year. Similar action is being taken in Canada, where over-the-counter availability for emergency contraceptives is in an accelerated reviewing process. A number of European companies including, but not limited to, the United Kingdom and France already offer emergency contraceptives without a prescription.
The American Medical Association, however, is batting for the other team. The organization upholds that while emergency contraceptives can afford to be made more available, selling the drug over the counter is not the answer. Instead, the AMA proposes the drugs be made more readily obtainable in “hospitals, clinics, emergency rooms, acute care centers and physicians’ offices.” It feels selling Plan B emergency contraceptives over the counter would contradict doctors’ “active role in providing education about emergency contraception, including access and informed consent issues.”
But when it comes right down to the facts about the drug, there’s not a whole lot for doctors to tell patients planning to take Plan B. The pills boast a sparse list of side effects including nausea in about 56 percent of patients and vomiting in about 5.6 percent. Less than 20 percent of patients reported lower abdominal pain, and less than 15 percent reported heavier or lighter menstrual bleeding. The rest of the side effects comprise a grocery list of the side effects of every drug from pain relievers to placebos: fatigue, headache and dizziness.
With a track record such as this, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists feels the drug is safe enough to find its way to the shelves. And given that the risk of pregnancy is reduced to 0.4 percent when the drug is taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex, it’s easy to see why over-the-counter availability is being pushed.
Furthermore, clinical evidence shows that emergency contraceptives have been a crucial factor in the decline in abortion rates. Research conducted at the Alan Guttmacher Institute indicated drugs such as Plan B may account for up to 43 percent of the 110,000 fewer abortions in 2000 compared to those in 1994.
Of course there are those who feel that making Plan B available without a prescription would cause a sexual insurgency of women carousing sans condom just because they can pick up Plan B at the local drugstore the next morning.
But let’s face it: Just like sex education in public schools, emergency contraceptives are coming out with a bang whether the sticklers for abstinence like it or not.