Plans B damned: Great emergency contraception article

…and it’s by the fabulous Nikol Hasler from Midwest Teen Sex Show! Check it out:

The condom broke, came off, or in some other way malfunctioned. He was behind me and I couldn’t tell he wasn’t using one. We just got carried away and he didn’t pull out in time. I forgot to take my birth control. I had an appointment to get on the pill, but we didn’t wait.

There are a whole slew of reasons a woman might find herself in need of a morning after pill; emergency contraception; Plan B. But unless you have Plan B already waiting in your medicine cabinet, it is highly unlikely you’ll get your hands on a morning-after pill the morning after.

I am a middle class 29 year old mother of three, living in the Midwest, who sees a physician regularly. I have kept up on the news about Plan B’s availability over the counter at major drug stores. In my line of work, I regularly tell teens and young adults to always use protection, and tell girls of reproductive age who aren’t so into the whole reproduction thing that they should be on birth control.

I encouraged young women and men to seek Plan B if their contraceptive method failed or they forgot to use contraception, telling them it was easy to obtain. But was it?

On a Tuesday morning at 7 a.m., I set out to discover just how easy it would be for me to get my hands on some emergency contraception. It all started with a web search. (…read more, RH Reality Check, thanks PA!)

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6 Comments - COMMENTARY is DESIRED

  1. I realize that things are slightly different in Canada, in terms of availability, but my experience getting Plan B was one of the best pharmacy experiences I’ve ever had.

    I walked up to the counter, asked for Plan B by name, and the girl at the counter said okay, no problem, and asked me whether I wanted to get it covered by my insurance. Since I’m a university student and still on my dad’s work plan, I said no and that I’d pay for it up front.

    Pharmacist came, brought me into a more private area with chairs and a table, explained how it worked, when to take the second pill, and the symptoms I might experience. There were no invasive questions, no questions about WHY I needed it, no pressure and no judgments. I’m sure that people have had lots of difficult or intimidating experiences getting the morning after pill, but my experience was great!

  2. Greetings from Germany (I like your blog, and I follow it every day), and here is my posting (please excuse mistakes in language, thanks):
    I once had a one night stand with a colleague, and our contraception didn’t work (indeed we had none at all, I have to admit – hormones did their work very well that night). The next morning it took her one trip to the doctor and the waiting time to see the doctor, and then she had it and took it – okay, that was it for the contraception, so far (and easier to handle than the odyssey Nikol reports).
    But what still was to handle was “the other side of one night stands” without condomes – HPV, fungi (is that the right word?), STD, and the feeling of letting a women run to the doctor and tell him (or her, I don’t know) about the intimacy of the last night.
    That was my and her cure for not wearing or demanding a condom, and it took several weeks to get that covered between us (and there was nothing left on her medical side, GSD).
    My post is not against one night stands (they are the pepper in the big sex soup) – my post is about safe one night stands. In the meantime I’m married, and that was it for the one night stands (really) – but if I ever were single again: I will be sure to have condomes with me everywhere, everytime (and good ones, too – there are differences, I can tell).
    So: Condomes raise the chances to have a second night with the same woman . . . And they do also raise the chance to enjoy sex, especially in one/two/three night stands.
    Best regards from Germany, Kommentator (just a nickname)

  3. Geez. In Belgium, you don’t need a prescription, it is very cheap and you can get it simply at any pharmacy. No questions asked.

    I tried it myself on a Sunday morning. A quick web search for the on-duty pharmacy in my area and voilà, two pills to take at once (glass of water kindly provided) and that’s it.

    But wait, there is even better. If a teenager girl needs it, it’s free. She can just walk into any pharmacy, ask for the pill and get it for free without any question and anonymously.

    That’s the way it should be everywhere.

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