This post and this one about emergency contraception were eye-openers for me. Perhaps I'm naive (or just ill-informed) but I had no idea that EC can be so hard to get, even in urban areas. The comments thread includes personal accounts of women who try to get a prescription for emergency contrapception being treated like a slut, being refused because they hadn't been raped, being refused because they weren't married. What in the what now? I don't get that one at all. If a doctor thinks emergency contraception is immoral, either because they can't tell the difference between contraception and abortion, or because they're against all contraception, well first of all, why are they even a gynecologist. I don't want anyone so backward and deluded making medical decisions about my lady parts, thank you. But secondly, if they think emergency contraception is immoral, then why is it OK for a married woman? That makes no sense.
The one that made my blood run cold was the woman whose doctor had no intention of prescribing EC for her, but delayed returning her phone calls until it was too late for her to get it anywhere else. I hope there's a rule against sabotaging a patient's care like that. She didn't report her doctor, but in her place I would have.
The scary part is that after emergency contraception becomes over the counter, it will be kept behind the counter. So a person trying to buy it will still have to run the gauntlet of pharmacists who might refuse to sell it and/or harangue them about their sex life. (I had originally written "so a woman trying to buy it .... harangue her about her sex life," but then it occurred to me that when it's OTC, men can buy it too. I wonder if moralistic pharmacists will hassle male customers as much as they do women?)
I'm going to take Lee's advice and buy emergency contraception in advance, just to keep it on hand. I'm a bit surprised to find when I search by zipcode that there are currently only 3 sources in Durham: Planned Parenthood, the Health Department, and the Duke Family Medical Center (existing patients only). But there are more in Chapel Hill, including the place I go. (I was going to say "my doctor" except that my doctor left the practice a few months ago and I haven't gotten a new one yet.)
I don't intend to ever need it, but that's the whole point; it's used in an emergency. Its shelf life is 4 years, and it must be taken within 72 hours of need, although sooner is better. In case of an emergency (i.e. a birth control failure or a sexual assault) I'd rather open my medicine cabinet and grab the pill, than spend the whole 72 hours frantically calling pharmacies, trying to find one which has it and won't treat me like a slut.
If you read as many angry liberal blogs as I do (not something I recommend, actually), you'd have seen the statement from Senator Joe Lieberman (Dickhead-CT) that it's not important that pharmacists are allowed to refuse to sell EC, because anywhere in CT another pharamacy is only a short taxi ride away.
But secondly, if they think emergency contraception is immoral, then why is it OK for a married woman? That makes no sense.
Because the objection isn't to contraception; it's to having sex for pleasure.
My angry liberal blog quota is currently at one: pandagon.net. I often disagree with their conclusions, occasionally to the point of being offended. But they link to a good range of current stories, both national and local to me (one of the authors lives in the Triangle).