JUST DOING MY PART TO CONTROL THE POPULATION....

An Open Letter About Emergency Contraception

by KATHA POLLITT & JENNIFER BAUMGARDNER
Posted August 29, 2002


The one thing that activists on every side of the
abortion debate agree on is that we should reduce the
number of unwanted pregnancies. There are 3 million
unintended pregnancies each year in the United States;
around 1.4 million of them end in abortion.

Yet the best tool for reducing unwanted pregnancies has
only been used by 2 percent of all adult women in the
United States and only 11 percent of us know enough
about it to be able to use it. No, we aren't talking
about abstinence--we mean something that works!

The tool is EC, which stands for Emergency
Contraception (and is also known as the Morning After
Pill).

For thirty years, doctors have dispensed EC "off label"
in the form of a handful of daily birth control pills.
Meanwhile, many women have taken matters into their own
hands by popping a handful themselves after one of
those nights--you know, when the condom broke or the
diaphragm slipped or for whatever reason you had
unprotected sex.

Preven (on the market since 1998) and Plan B (approved
in 1999), the dedicated forms of EC, operate
essentially as a higher-dose version of the Pill,
compressed into two tablets. The first dose is taken
within 72 hours after unprotected sex, the second pill
is taken 12 hours later. EC is at least 75 percent
effective in preventing an unwanted pregnancy after sex
by interrupting ovulation, fertilization, and
implantation of the egg.

If you are sexually active, or even if you're not right
now, you should have a dose of EC on hand. It's less
anxiety-producing than waiting around to see if you
miss your period; much easier, cheaper and more
pleasant than having to arrange for a surgical abortion
if you end up pregnant and don't want to be.

These websites will help you find an EC provider in
your area:
www.backupyourbirthcontrol.org
www.not-2-late.com
ec.princeton.edu/providers/index.html

Don't wait until you're in a crisis. Your doctor may
not be able to see you in time, and other doctors may
not want to deal with walk-ins. Many clinics and
doctor's offices are closed on weekends and holidays--
the most likely times for unprotected sex. If you live
in a rural area, the logistical difficulties--finding
the doctor, finding the pharmacy that stocks EC--are
compounded. Plan ahead!

Forward this information to anyone you think may not
know about backing up her birth control and print out
the info in this e-mail if you want to organize as part
of the EC campaign (or do your own thing and let us
know about it). Let's make sure we have access to our
own hard-won sexual and reproductive freedom!

Seven Things You Need to Know About Emergency
Contraception

§ EC is easy. A woman takes a dose of EC within 72
hours of unprotected sex, followed by a second dose 12
hours later.

§ EC is legal.

§ EC is safe. It is FDA-approved and supported by the
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and
the American Medical Women's Association

§ EC is not an abortion. The two pills you take are not
RU-486, the abortion pill, which can be taken up to
nine weeks into a pregnancy. EC does not work if you
are already pregnant and will not harm a developing
fetus. Anti-choicers who call EC "the abortion pill" or
"chemical abortion" also believe birth control pills,
IUDs and contraceptive injections are abortions.

§ EC works. It is at least 75 percent effective in
preventing an unwanted pregnancy after sex, but before
either fertilization or implantation. According to the
FDA, EC pills "are not effective if the woman is
pregnant; they act primarily by delaying or inhibiting
ovulation, and/or by altering tubal transport of sperm
and/or ova (thereby inhibiting fertilization), and/or
altering the endometrium (thereby inhibiting
implantation)."

§ EC has a long shelf life. You can keep your EC on
hand for two years, according to the FDA.

§ EC is for women who use birth control. You should
back up your birth control by keeping a dose of EC in
your medicine cabinet or purse.

What You Can Do to Help

Forward this e-mail to everyone you know. Post it on
lists, especially those with lots of women and girls.
Print out this information, photocopy it to make
instant leaflets and pass them around your community.
Call your healthcare provider, clinic or university
health service and ask if they provide EC. Spread the
word in your community if they do. Lobby them (via
petitions, meetings with the administrators, op-eds) to
offer EC if they don't.

Make sure that your local ER has EC on hand for rape
victims and dispenses it as a matter of policy to women
who have been assaulted. Many hospitals, including most
Catholic hospitals, do not dispense EC even to rape
victims.

Get in touch with local organizations--Planned
Parenthood, NOW, NARAL, campus groups--and work with
them to pressure hospitals to amend their policies.

If you can't find a group, start your own. Local
activism can achieve wonders.

If you are a writer, submit an op-ed to your local
paper. Writer or not, send letters to the editor about
EC. You can key your letters to particular stories--or
request that stories be written.

Make sure that your local pharmacy will fill
prescriptions for EC. Some states have "conscience-
clauses" that exempt pharmacists from dispensing drugs
that have to do with women's reproductive freedom.

Birth Control Pills That Can Be Used in the United
States as EC
Trivora (4 pink tablets)
Alesse (5 pink tablets)
Levlite (5 pink tablets)
Nordette (4 light orange tablets)
Lo/Ovral (4 white tablets)
Levlen (4 light orange tablets)
Levora (4 white tablets)
Low-Ogestrel (4 white tablets)
Tri-Levlen (4 yellow tablets)
Triphasil (4 yellow tablets)


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