Plan B: A new birth control method or an alternative to be used only on emergencies?
By Iris S. Banuelos
Published May 9th, 2008
The morning after the condom she and her boyfriend were using broke while having sex, Lilia, age 20, went to the local drugstore to buy Plan B, an over-the-counter version of the morning after pill. She showed her driver’s license (a picture ID will also work as well) to the pharmacist and paid $45 for the pill. She returned by 10 in the morning and took the first pill. Twelve hours later she took pill number two. Plan B consists of two pills: the first tablet has to be taken as soon as possible within 72 hours of unprotected sex, and the second tablet must be taken 12 hours after the first pill was taken.
“I was scared. I never thought I’ll do something like this. But a baby was not part of my plans, at least not for now. Of course I want to have kids, but I have to be done with school first,” Lilia said as her motives for taking the pill were questioned. “Maybe later on in life, when I get married and form a family I’ll have my kids. That will be totally different.” Lilia said she learned about Plan B for a cousin who explained how it worked. “That’s how I knew about it”.
Since its release to the public without a prescription on November 6, 2006, Plan B has caused controversy among parents and the pharmaceutical industry. Parents fear their daughters may use the next-day pill as a birth control method and that it may lead to promiscuity. Pharmaceutical companies worry that sexually active women using Plan B will feel less need to go see a doctor, which will decrease the odds of early detection of sexually transmitted diseases.
Like Lilia, most of the women that buy the pill are under 21 years of age and are not married. “We see many young ladies coming to buy the pill. Sometimes they come with their boyfriends. They ask me about how to take the pill and they look very concerned,” said a female pharmacist, who refused to give out her name, at a local Wal-Mart. “It is good that the pill is now available and over-the-counter because if they go see a doctor and ask for a prescription, time will pass and their chances of getting pregnant will increase,” she added.
Dr. Eric Garcia, who works at a local Walgreens drugstore said “it is very hard to come up with the demographics of the people who buy the pill the most”. “It is especially difficult because El Paso is predominately Hispanic and so are most of the women who purchase the pill.”
According to the Plan B website, the pill is meant to be used for preventing pregnancies and not for routine use. For it to be effective, a woman must take the pill within 72 hours after unprotected sex. The pill will not have any effects if a woman is already pregnant.
Lilia knows that a condom reduces her chances of both getting pregnant and getting a sexually transmitted disease, but what is there to do when it breaks? “I now know that accidents of this kind do happen. I am going to back up the use of condom with contraceptive pills,” Lilia said. “Thank God I did not get pregnant this time, but I am going to take this opportunity to be more careful in the future.”
Iris Banuelos can be reached at:
Picture courtesy of www.dailymail.co.uk
