Concern has been raised in various quarters after an online pharmacy, Lloyd’s, announced plans to sell the morning after pill in bulk over the internet. The company will allow women to buy up to three pills at once. They say that the product is aimed at women concerned they would not have time to reach their doctors’ in the event the pill was needed. Levanelle, the brand name for the treatment, is already sold without a doctor’s prescription in pharmacies and is available from family planning clinics. It must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex and after 42 hours its efficacy diminishes.
Critics, however, have questioned whether women might be able to stockpile the treatments and have also raised fears that children might get access to the treatment. The Christian Medical Fellowship have weighed in, with a representative, Dr. Peter Saunders, calling it “irresponsible and reckless” as knowing there is “the option of emergency contraception, it will encourage you to have unprotected sex and that will fuel the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases.”
The Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is also uneasy with the move, as the pill is intended as ‘emergency contraception...not a routine form...wider availability would run the risk of encouraging unprotected intercourse with the attendant risk of sexually transmitted infections.” MP Geraldine Smith said that if it was “very easy to get hold of these pills then it’s something you do without a second thought”.
Bulk buying the pills is definitely a concern, as knowing that you have packs and packs of them may indeed encourage irresponsibility. Sexually transmitted infection rates are rising rapidly; clearly unprotected sex is something Brits do all too well and this should be discouraged.
However, having said that, there is something very uncomfortable about the message coming through that access to emergency contraception should be as obstacle-strewn as possible. For that is what the critics are saying – if its “easy” that’s bad, the mere “option” encourages unprotected sex, “wider availability” is to be avoided. Like putting booby traps between a thirsty person and a glass of water, and when they get dehydration saying that you told them where the water was so it’s their fault. One would imagine that the sheer price of the pills would prevent them being used other than sparingly and in times of real need, but no one seems to have considered that.
The unfortunate fact is that sometimes, the best-educated and most responsible of women can slip up. We may slip up but that doesn’t mean we are usually stupid or don’t understand the proper use of medicines. Certainly most women would not down serious medication without ‘a second thought’ and to imply that they would is intensely patronising.