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May 9, 2006
Doctors support emergency contraception with new initiative
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.
Posted by Jessica at May 9, 2006 9:06 AM
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Comments
This is great! Even if a woman doesn't have a prescription herself, this increases the chances that a friend or family member could get access to the drug quickly for her. I applaud their efforts!
Posted by: Anna at May 9, 2006 9:37 AM