My birth control pills are taped to my fridge. It’s the latest in a long line of attempts to remember to take them on time and to not skip a dose or a day. It surprises me that swallowing one of those suckers would slip my mind for a second, considering the hell I would face were I to suddenly find myself in a compromising situation.
I believe that it is my right to have – and enjoy – sex responsibly. I also believe that it is my fundamental human right to choose whether or not I want to become a mother, and children are something I definitely don’t see in my future for many reasons. The idea of abortion is not a pleasant one, nor do I believe it to be an easy way out.
However, if faced with an unwanted pregnancy, I would certainly consider an abortion. As difficult a decision as that would be, I would want the option based on what I feel would be best. It is my right to feel this way, yet having another last-chance option when I forget to take my daily dose of prevention sure would be nice.
Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way. Enter Plan B, or emergency contraception, Western medicine’s latest method of preventing an unwanted pregnancy. It is a massive dose of birth control that, when taken within five days of unprotected sex, can prevent pregnancy. It is not an abortion pill, and it is completely safe; it’s even FDA-approved.
You would think that with all the fuss about banning abortion, people would be eager to embrace something that would prevent unwanted pregnancy, thus decreasing the number of abortions. Sadly, this is not true.
In April, Gov. Bill Owens slammed the door on House Bill 1212, a measure that would allow Colorado pharmacists to prescribe and distribute emergency contraception. Giving pharmacists the ability to do this would lessen the amount of time between unprotected sex and obtaining Plan B, thus increasing the chance that the woman will not become impregnated. Without this choice, women find themselves desperately trying to make an appointment with a health-care practitioner, then going somewhere else to have a prescription filled.
It also eliminates the stress of having to wait over a weekend to find out whether or not a woman can be seen. If your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister or daughter were raped, wouldn’t you want her to have the relative peace of mind of knowing she wouldn’t be faced with a pregnancy? The kicker is that pharmacists would not have been required to distribute the pills, but they would have been able to educate women about them and offer them as an option.
Really, we should be progressing with medical advancements such as these, not the opposite.
Planned Parenthood to the rescue. On June 30, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (all 24 clinics; go to pprm.org for more details) will be offering free emergency contraception to anyone who walks in the door. No exam, no hassle, just a little packet of pills that you can hide away in your medicine cabinet in case of … well, an emergency.
This is an extremely generous offer, considering that PPRM is a non-profit organization that isn’t exactly rolling in the dough, and these pills cost more than $30 per package. Last year, women turned to Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains for emergency contraception more than 67,000 times. You can do the numbers. Their belief in this prevention measure is so strong that they are willing to do whatever it takes.
At least someone is doing something.
Perhaps what is most frustrating about this issue is that emergency contraception provides a marvelous compromise between the pro-choice and the anti-abortion sides. The pro-choice want to retain their right to choose who governs their bodies. Emergency contraception provides that choice. The anti-abortion groups want to reduce, if not banish, abortion. Emergency contraception could prevent nearly 800,000 abortions every year.
That being said, it’s time we rally for this cause. You all know how you can do your part.
Katie Stone (katiestone23@gmail.com) is a May graduate of CU-Boulder, works as a server at a local restaurant and is a freelance video editor.
