Emergency Contraception Brand Applies for Over-the-Counter Status: NARAL Wisconsin Applauds Effort to Make Emergency Contraception More Accessible
This week Women’s Capital Corporation, maker of the Plan B brand emergency contraceptive, submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requesting to sell the product over-the-counter. NARAL Wisconsin applauds this endeavor to make emergency contraception more accessible.
“Used properly, emergency contraception prevents pregnancy 89% of the time. Emergency contraception is not medical abortion. Rather, emergency contraception acts to prevent pregnancy. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) estimates that use of emergency contraception could reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by 1.2 million and the number of abortions by 800,000 annually. However, emergency contraception is only effective in the first 72 hours after unprotected intercourse. Far too often, women miss this critical window because their physicians cannot see them immediately,” notes Deborah Lukovich, NARAL Wisconsin’s Executive Director.
“The findings of the Wisconsin Reproductive Access Project, a project of the NARAL WI Foundation, reveal that only 50% of Wisconsin hospital emergency rooms routinely prescribe emergency contraception and more than 25% of hospital emergency rooms never prescribe emergency contraception, even in cases of sexual assault. Over-the-counter status would greatly improve access to emergency contraception, making abortion less necessary. Where emergency contraception is already available over the counter, more women do use it. The safety and efficacy of emergency contraception certainly warrants over-the-counter status,” continues Deborah Lukovich.
The American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) support the proposal to make emergency contraception available over the counter.
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