www.womenarenotstupid.co.uk
What we are
www.womenarenotstupid.co.uk is a campaigning website set up by the London based freelance journalist Ellie Levenson to campaign for better access to emergency contraception (also known as the morning after pill).
What we want
Emergency contraception to be available from pharmacists and other providers in advance, and to everyone, to ensure that women are able have immediate access to it when needed. This is particularly important because emergency contraception is 95% effective if taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex but just 58% effective if taken 72 hours later.
Sign the petition
There is also a petition about this on the Downing Street website. To sign the petition click here.
Background
At the moment if a woman wants emergency contraception she must get it herself at the time of needing it. Although in 2006 the Royal Pharmaceutical Society issued a statement saying that it is not against the advanced supply of emergency contraception in principle, in many instances women are being refused advance provision by pharmacists.
This means that a woman can't buy it in advance from pharmacies to keep in the bathroom cabinet in case a condom splits. Nor can someone else buy it for her unless they can convince the pharmacist that it is an exceptional situation such as a person being housebound. Being stuck at work or at home looking after children is not usually deemed a good enough reason. Mums cannot buy it for daughters. A woman's partner cannot buy it for her. Nor can her friend.
Many people including some pharmacists argue that this is because emergency contraception should not be used other than in an emergency and that they need to ask certain questions of women before they can take it. This suggests women are incapable of self-diagnosing - something we actually do every time we take a painkiller which, taken wrongly, could also harm us.
You can read the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's guidelines on when pharmacists can supply emergency contraception here.
Some people also suggest that easier access to emergency contraception will make women more promiscuous. Not only does research show that this is not true, the argument should not be relevant. Who we sleep with and how often is surely a choice everyone has the right to make. Whatever choices we make, and whether the result of a split condom or a heat of the moment silly decision, having access to emergency contraception, and using it when needed, is far more responsible than allowing an unplanned pregnancy to continue.
What you can do
What can you do? Join the campaign, sign the petition, tell us your story, write to your MP, protest to your pharmacist , write articles, blog, link to this website, tell your friends and insist to everyone that women are not stupid and can be trusted to have emergency contraception at home just in case, and to self-diagnose and send someone else out to buy it for them.
What we are
www.womenarenotstupid.co.uk is a campaigning website set up by the London based freelance journalist Ellie Levenson to campaign for better access to emergency contraception (also known as the morning after pill).
What we want
Emergency contraception to be available from pharmacists and other providers in advance, and to everyone, to ensure that women are able have immediate access to it when needed. This is particularly important because emergency contraception is 95% effective if taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex but just 58% effective if taken 72 hours later.
Sign the petition
There is also a petition about this on the Downing Street website. To sign the petition click here.
Background
At the moment if a woman wants emergency contraception she must get it herself at the time of needing it. Although in 2006 the Royal Pharmaceutical Society issued a statement saying that it is not against the advanced supply of emergency contraception in principle, in many instances women are being refused advance provision by pharmacists.
This means that a woman can't buy it in advance from pharmacies to keep in the bathroom cabinet in case a condom splits. Nor can someone else buy it for her unless they can convince the pharmacist that it is an exceptional situation such as a person being housebound. Being stuck at work or at home looking after children is not usually deemed a good enough reason. Mums cannot buy it for daughters. A woman's partner cannot buy it for her. Nor can her friend.
Many people including some pharmacists argue that this is because emergency contraception should not be used other than in an emergency and that they need to ask certain questions of women before they can take it. This suggests women are incapable of self-diagnosing - something we actually do every time we take a painkiller which, taken wrongly, could also harm us.
You can read the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's guidelines on when pharmacists can supply emergency contraception here.
Some people also suggest that easier access to emergency contraception will make women more promiscuous. Not only does research show that this is not true, the argument should not be relevant. Who we sleep with and how often is surely a choice everyone has the right to make. Whatever choices we make, and whether the result of a split condom or a heat of the moment silly decision, having access to emergency contraception, and using it when needed, is far more responsible than allowing an unplanned pregnancy to continue.
What you can do
What can you do? Join the campaign, sign the petition, tell us your story, write to your MP, protest to your pharmacist , write articles, blog, link to this website, tell your friends and insist to everyone that women are not stupid and can be trusted to have emergency contraception at home just in case, and to self-diagnose and send someone else out to buy it for them.