www.womenarenotstupid.co.uk

If you write to your MP about this issue, you will alert them to the fact that the people who vote for them and keep them in a job are worried about this issue.

You can find out who your MP by putting your postcode in here. (If you don't know your postcode you can find it here)

You can send a letter to your MP at the following address:

House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

MPs can only respond to letters from people who live in the area they represent, so make sure you write to your own MP.

You can write your own letter or, if you don't know what to write, here is a suggested letter below that you can copy:



Dear xxxx xxxx MP,

I am writing to you as one of your constituents to express my concern about the limited access to emergency contraception (morning after pill) through pharmacies.

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 at 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.

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.

There is an e-petition about this on the Downing Street website.

Please could you write and tell me your position on this matter. Also I urge you to put pressure on the government to change the guidelines on emergency contraception to make it easy for anybody to obtain at any time, in order for people to self-diagnose their need for it, and to assess its safety and effectiveness in their own case in the way we do with any other over the counter medicine.

Yours sincerely,

xxxxxx xxxxxx