Washington – Women of reproductive age should get an advance prescription for emergency contraception to keep in case they ever need it, the nation’s largest gynecologist group advised Monday.
“Accidents happen,” say waiting-room posters headed for the 49,000 members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The posters are part of an effort urging doctors to explain the morning-after pill to women of reproductive age they examine and offer a prescription to those eligible.
The effort aims to increase access to emergency birth control after the Bush administration’s refusal to allow it to be sold without a prescription nationwide.
In Colorado last month, Gov. Bill Owens vetoed House Bill 1212, which would have allowed pharmacists to prescribe the morning-after pill, saying he worried that easy access could lead to teens’ using it as their primary form of birth control.
The pill is a high dose of regular birth control pills. It cuts the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent if used within 72 hours of rape, condom failure or forgetting other contraception.
