In the run up to Christmas, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) is advising women to plan ahead and obtain their emergency contraception before it is more difficult to obtain over the Christmas period: a time when STI infection rates and the number of unplanned pregnancies increase and the pharmacies and surgeries close.
BPAS has announced today that the morning after pill is being offered free of charge and is available online after a consultation with a nurse and it will arrive in the post with a supply of condoms.
A spokesperson for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service refutes criticisms which suggests the organisation is promoting risky behaviour and explains that planning ahead does not suggest one is planning on taking risks but rather one is making sure that nothing is left to chance. The health charity, Life, says that if emergency contraception is available in the home, then the female is more inclined to engage in a risky event than she would without this sort of back-up.
Is this sort of promotion in fact going to increase the rates of sexually transmitted infections over the festive period? And how will the nurses know that they are not supplying under-age girls? Surely this quick fix solution to risky, unnecessary behaviour is not the sort message a health charity should be sending out to the public.
Surely such efforts in the name of public health should focus on safe sex. At the very least, when a woman comes in to see a doctor in a face to face environment seeking emergency contraception, a doctor can then discuss issues such as STIs with her. Encouraging women to stock up on emergency contraceptives online or over the phone does nothing to help such causes and in fact puts them in greater danger of contracting bacterial infections or worse, an virus they could have for life.