It’s homecoming season, the peak of the semester, and the week after fall break. The last thing on your mind is keeping up with the news, but keeping up with current events just might keep you from getting caught up in this homecoming season!
Let’s be honest; a lot of us are not employing proper precautionary contraceptives, such as condoms, or birth control when partaking in certain nefarious activities of late (no judgement). Twitter has been in a tizzy for months over the hot topic Republican petition to repeal Roe v. Wade, as well as the presentation of such legislation of the Heartbeat Bill in several states. (The Heartbeat Bill is a controversial form of abortion restriction that makes abortions illegal as soon as a heartbeat can be detected.) So what is one to do when proper preventative avenues haven’t been utilized, with regard to the inaccessibility and turmoil surrounding the abortion thoroughfare? What is that last line of defense after having had unprotected sex, before crossing the river into possible abortion territory? Plan B contraceptive. But did you know… many women are finding out the hard way that Plan B contraceptive, despite its 95% effectiveness rating, is far from infallible?
In a recent Refinery29 article entitled “I Got Pregnant After Taking The Morning After Pill,“ it is ascertained that the Faculty and Reproductive Health guidelines state that “for a significant proportion of the women included in the study [where it was found that 1% of women receiving emergency contraceptives at any point in the fertility cycle became pregnant] unprotected sexual intercourse would not have occurred during [ovulation or within the parameters of fertility] and therefore would not have resulted in pregnancy, regardless.”
Simplified, this means that if a woman is ovulating by the time she takes Plan B, the pill is essentially useless to her! One would think that this glaring loophole would have been broadcasted on the packaging in big, bright letters to warn potential users…. But it isn’t, and women are not happy about it. There is a lot of obscurity surrounding the “morning-after pill.” Many don’t know that it’s best to take it within 72 hours after unprotected sex, or that the pill is dosed to cater, most effectively, to people between 175 and 195 lbs.
This is information that should be readily provided by a pharmacist, a prescribing doctor, and/or (HELLO!) the box itself. And while this information is readily available in the tiny lettered pamphlets that come with the pill (that no one reads), it’s not fair or realistic to expect everyone to read it thoroughly. Information that crucial to people’s success and livelihood should be easily and readily accessible. So watch yourselves out there, ladies! Make sure you’re reading the fine print and tracking your cycles! Have fun out here, but not too much fun.