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Emergency contraceptive pill gives birth to confusion
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Samantha Lewis knows both pharmacists can’t be right.
One pharmacist told her that the emergency contraceptive pill was effective only the morning after unprotected sex. Another told her the drug, known as Plan B, was effective up to three days after unprotected sex.
“Someone’s got to be wrong,” said Lewis, 19, a former NARAL Pro-Choice America intern and an upcoming sophomore at Hood College.
As more women opt for the emergency contraceptive — approved by the Food and Drug Administration in November 2006 for over-the-counter sale — a uniform approach to distribution is still lacking, advocates say.
Since its approval, sales of the drug have more than doubled from 17,000 per week in August 2006 to 40,000 per week one year later, according to the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, a reproductive health advocate.
“Making it over the counter not only made it more accessible to women, but increased their awareness that it exists,” said Wendy Royalty, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Maryland.
But advocates say a uniform approach to care by pharmacists is still lacking.
“I think they don’t inform people at all at the pharmacy,” said Lewis, of Damascus. “They just expect you to read the directions.”
An overall policy to enforce a uniform process of care by pharmacists is missing if questions aren’t being asked before the drug is dispensed, said Magaly Rodriguez deBittner, president of the Maryland Pharmacists Association.
“My responsibility as the pharmacist giving you a recommendation is to ask you questions that will dictate what I give you,”
deBittner said.
However, advocates say, too often this does not seem to be the case.
“The couple times I’ve tried to get it, the pharmacists are uninformed and unhelpful,” said Lewis, who added that at one grocery store pharmacy in Germantown, a pharmacist told her the drug could not be sold to unmarried customers.
The cost of a standard two-pill pack varies — Planned Parenthood health centers sell it for $20, and area pharmacies charge about $40.
“I don’t think it encourages people to take more risks [in their sexual behavior] because it usually makes you pretty sick,” Lewis said. “It’s a whole bunch of no fun, so I don’t think it encourages anybody to be a risk taker.”
