Women urged to keep emergency contraceptive pill at home ‘just in case’

bpas on 14 December launched a new campaign urging women to keep the emergency contraceptive pill ready at home, in case they risk pregnancy. 

The emergency contraceptive pill (ECP), also known as the ‘morning after’ pill, can prevent pregnancy if taken up to 72 hours after sex, but it can be up to 50% more effective if taken within the first 12 hours after sex. After this time, effectiveness reduces. However, the emergency contraceptive pill is rarely available to women in advance. Many struggle to access it within the crucial 72-hour timeframe - especially at weekends or during public holidays.

Emergency contraceptive pills are already available free on prescription from doctors and family planning clinics and on sale from pharmacies. But bpas says it can be difficult for women to get a doctors’ appointment in time and many family planning clinics have restricted opening hours. Pharmacists are only permitted to sell the pill to women who have already risked pregnancy. The retail cost of emergency contraceptive pills can also be prohibitive for poorer women, at around £26.

Women can now make appointments or simply drop-in to any of 17 bpas clinics up and down the country, where nurses have been specially trained to supply emergency contraception in advance. bpas will offer advance emergency contraception to all its sexual healthcare clients. Because bpas is a charity providing not-for-profit sexual healthcare, its doctors and nurses will be able to prescribe the pill for just £10.

Ann Furedi, Chief Executive of bpas said:

‘Sometimes contraception fails, and sometimes we fail to use it effectively. In the real world, accidents happen. Emergency contraceptive pills give us a second chance to avoid a problem pregnancy. It makes sense to keep it in the bathroom cabinet, along with your plasters and paracetamol. You don’t wait until you have a headache before buying aspirin, and it makes no sense to wait until you have unprotected sex before you get emergency contraception.’

Advance prescribing of the emergency contraceptive pill has the support of the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care (FFPRHC) of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG). Dr Kate Guthrie, Consultant Gynaecologist and Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Health said:

‘The Faculty’s view is that we need to improve access to emergency contraception and advance prescribing. This is set in the context of the need to improve access to all methods of contraception.’

According to the Family Planning Association (fpa), of the pregnancies that could be expected to have occurred if no emergency contraception had been used, the emergency pill will prevent: up to 95% if taken within 24 hours, up to 85% if taken between 25-48 hours, and up to 58% if taken between 49-72 hours. The fpa also supports advance prescribing.

Emergency contraceptive pills can prevent pregnancy, but do not cause an abortion if the woman is already pregnant. The emergency contraceptive pill is not an alternative to regular forms of contraception. According to the World Health Organisation, this is ‘because of the higher possibility of failure compared to modern contraceptives. In addition, frequent use of emergency contraception would results in more side-effects, such as menstrual irregularities. However, their repeated use poses no known health risks.’

No method of contraception is 100% effective at preventing pregnancy. Typical ‘real life’ use of regular contraceptives has also been found to result in greater failure rates than ‘perfect use’ (for example, strictly according to manufacturers’ instructions). American researchers recently found the ‘typical use’ failure rate of the condom to be 15%, compared to a 2% failure rate with ‘perfect use’. The same study states that half (49%) of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended: there were 3.1 million in 2001, the last year for which data is available. One of every two women aged 15-44 in the United States has experienced at least one unintended pregnancy. (1)

The anti-abortion movement has criticised bpas‘ campaign. ‘This move by bpas beggars belief because it encourages people to have promiscuous sex without thinking about the consequences,’ Michaela Aston of Life told the Daily Mail, and she accused bpas of ‘trivialising both abortion and sex’.  Also quoted in the Daily Mail, Anthony Ozimic, political secretary for SPUC, accused bpas of ‘scandalously misleading women by telling them that the morning-after pill cannot work as an abortifacient.’

In the Daily Telegraph, Valerie Riches, the founder-president of Family and Youth Concern, said:’All this assumes people have no self-control. It simply encourages a more promiscuous attitude to relationships which cannot be good for people in the long-term.’

But in a spirited article in the Guardian on 24 November, Ellie Levenson endorsed bpas campaign. ‘By refusing easy access [to ECP], not only is it being suggested that we shouldn’t decide when it is that we want sex, but that we can’t be trusted after the event to rectify any mishap that may have occurred,’ she wrote. ‘It’s the same as putting a suspected witch in water to see if she drowns. If a woman gets pregnant accidentally she is wanton, but if she tries to prevent pregnancy, she is also wanton. The only answer, some might say, is abstinence - which is surely no answer at all.’

For more information, please contact Laura Riley in the bpas press office on 020 7612 0206 or 07788 725 185.

(1) From ‘Reducing Unintended Pregnancy in the United States’, in press, by James Trussell, Professor of Economics and Public Affairs and Director, Office of Population Research, Princeton University, New Jersey.

Also read:

Sex, lies and the morning-after pill, Guardian, 24 November 2006

Morning after pills to handed out in advance for the first time, Daily Mail, 14 December 2006

Women told to keep the Pill with the plasters, Daily Telegraph, 14 December 2006

Women urged to keep emergency contraceptive pill at home ‘just in case’, bpas press statement, 14 December 2006