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American Morning
Should Morning-After Pill Be More Readily Available?
Aired May 01, 2001 - 10:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A physicians group is pushing a new recommendation for the so-called morning-after pill.
Joining us now to discuss the matter is Dr. Anita Nelson. She is spokeswoman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Dr. Nelson, good morning.
DR. ANITA NELSON, UCLA: Good morning. Thank you so much for showing interest in this story.
KAGAN: First of all, I think it's important to talk about what the morning-after pill is. We are not talking about RU-486, which has been so controversial as an abortion pill. Explain to our viewers what the morning-after pill is and how it works.
NELSON: What we're talking about is emergency contraception. This is a dose of birth control pills that women can take within 24 hours to 72 hours of the time that they have an accidental exposure to sperm. What this does is combine birth control pills at specific doses that can prevent pregnancy after a woman has sex.
KAGAN: And it's supposed to prevent it by preventing ovulation, not by ending a pregnancy where conception has already taken place.
NELSON: If a woman is already pregnant, this product will not help her. But if she has it before she gets pregnant, then it can help prevent her from becoming pregnant in the first place.
KAGAN: And you think this is something that should be in every woman's medicine cabinet -- or at least if they want to have it there.
NELSON: Yes, because we know accidents happen. We know that just last year that half of the women who became pregnant were not trying to become pregnant at the time that they conceived. And we know that half of those pregnancies ended in abortion. We'd like very much to help women control when they become pregnant so that they can have the very best outcomes:
They can be prepared for pregnancy, healthy, and get the very best babies that they can -- so giving them a chance after something horrible has happened, like the condom has broken, or the diaphragm has gotten dislodged, or maybe they forget to take a couple of pills. Things like that happen in life. And this provides a safety net for women to keep them from getting pregnant when they don't want to.
KAGAN: So these pills are already very much available, but the system isn't set up for women just to have it at home. The idea is, right now, you have to go to the doctor if you think you've had an accident.
NELSON: Well, typically, that's what's been happening. And we noticed that there are a lot of barriers to women getting them on a timely basis. So we don't ask women to go to the pharmacies after the cut their fingers to get Band-Aids. We know things are going to happen. And the bandages are in the medicine cabinets. And, most assuredly, emergency contraception should be there too.
KAGAN: A couple of concerns here: Are you putting too much power in the patient? And what about being under a doctor's care?
NELSON: Emergency contraception is amazingly safe. We know that these single doses are not going to be causing medical problems. A well-educated patient should be able to easily take these birth control pills when she needs them.
And today we have products that use these birth control pills only for emergency contraception. So the instructions on how to use them relate to birth control pills for emergency contraception. If she has any questions, the write-up is right there. And it will give her all the instructions she needs.
KAGAN: And eventually we're headed to the day when perhaps this would even be over-the-counter medication?
NELSON: Yes, it will be. But today the problem is that so very few women know about emergency contraception. So we're hoping that women will ask their physicians, if the physicians don't offer it to them. And, more importantly, we want to make sure that in every visit, a woman gets offered emergency contraception, because she'll know it's there and can have it when she needs it, if she desires to have it.
KAGAN: Dr. Anita Nelson, thanks for stopping by. We appreciate the information today.
NELSON: Thank you.
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