Access to Emergency Contraception After Removal of Age Restrictions

Pharmacy access to emergency contraception in California.

CONTEXT California is one of eight states that allow a woman to obtain emergency contraceptives from a pharmacy without a physician prescription. Because many women do not know about emergency contraception or direct pharmacy access, it is important to understand barriers to getting the method and women's reasons for choosing the pharmacy option. METHODS In a 2004 survey at 25 predominantly i...

A review of global access to emergency contraception.

BACKGROUND Emergency contraception has been known for several decades, and dedicated products have been on the market for close to 20 years. Yet it is unclear whether women, particularly in low-resource countries, have access to this important second-chance method of contraception. OBJECTIVES To review relevant policies, regulations, and other factors related to access to emergency contracept...

What Happens the Morning After? the Costs and Bene_ts of Expanding Access to Emergency Contraception

What happens the morning after? The costs and benefits of expanding access to emergency contraception.

Emergency contraception (EC) can prevent pregnancy after sex, but only if taken within 72 hours of intercourse. Over the past 15 years, access to EC has been expanded at both the state and federal level. This paper studies the impact of those policies. We find that expanded access to EC has had no statistically significant effect on birth or abortion rates. Expansions of access, however, have c...

Increased access to emergency contraception: why it may fail.

BACKGROUND To explore why increased access to emergency contraception (EC) failed to reduce pregnancies in a recent randomized controlled trial. METHODS We used multivariable logistic regression to identify risk factors for unintended pregnancy using data from a trial involving sexually active women (n = 1490, aged 14-24 years) randomly assigned to either increased access or standard access t...