# Disgusting tale of woman's unsucessful search for emergency contraception **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 26, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272 "2006-09-26T21:58:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/1 "2006-09-26T21:58:15Z")
[This is a disgusting example of what women have to go through to get emergency contraception (EC/the morning after pill): “Morality clauses, EC, and broken condoms”](http://bitingbeaver.blogspot.com/2006/09/morality-clauses-ec-and-broken-condoms.html) An Ohio woman detailed in her blog her experience of trying to get EC recently after a condom broke. She already has three kids and doesn’t want any more. She called her pharmacy, who told her it isn’t available over the counter until Jan. 1, 2007. She called her doctor’s office, which was closed, and was told to call the local hospital’s emergency room. Even though going through the ER would cost her a co-pay of $100, she decides it’s worth it, and calls. The nurse at the ER make her answer all sorts of personal questions: was she raped? is she married? (How on earth would that matter?) Then the nurse told her that out of four doctors on duty, only one would prescribe EC, and only if a woman meets certain “criteria” – and basically since she is unmarried and wasn’t raped, she was SOL. Some snippets from the rest of her story: > [@](#): > > I sigh and thank him before hanging up. I know exactly what he was telling me. If I wasn’t raped and wasn’t married then too damn bad for me. > > I opened the phone book again and called the Urgent Care in my county. Who knows, maybe they’ll do it for me. “No,” the nurse said, “We don’t prescribe the abortion pill here”. > > “No, wait I’m not asking for the abortion pill. I’m asking for EC!” I say, “It’s not the same thing.” > > “Well, we use the words interchangeably here. Sorry, we don’t prescribe it”. > > I start looking through the telephone book, dialing hospitals from counties all around me. It seems that nobody will prescribe it to me. None of the hospitals are willing to touch me, of the ones that will prescribe it I am asked a series of questions to ‘screen’ me before I come to the hospital. The results aren’t good. I’m not married and wasn’t raped, so there’s very little they can do for me. But I can try the nurses tell me uncomfortably. > > “But if I go through all this and I can’t get it will I still be charged the co-pay?” > > “Well…ummmm…yeah. I’m afraid so Ma’am.” comes the reply. > > I called every hospital in every surrounding county and none of them would prescribe me EC. Not even ONE. > > I was told by every urgent care I called and every emergency room that I was shit out of luck. I was asked my age. My marital status. How many children I had. If I had been raped and when I became uncomfortable with the questions I was told, “Well Ma’am, try to understand that you will be interviewed and the doctor has ‘criteria’ that you need to meet before he will prescribe it for you.” > > I have been asked about my sexual practices. Whether I’m ‘monogamous’ or ‘in a relationship’ if I’m married, if I have kids, how many kids I have, if I was raped or ‘traumatized’ but there wasn’t’ ONE question about my health. Not one. > > Folks, the condom broke Friday night and I searched all weekend for someone who could prescribe me EC. It is now Monday and I have to report that I have been unable to find anyone who will write me a fucking prescription for EC. None of the hospitals in the surrounding counties would write it for me. I stopped my search at about 100 miles from my home because my telephone book wouldn’t take me out any further than that. WHY ON EARTH does it matter if she is married, or if she has kids? In fact, the fact she is unmarried and already has 3 kids should be a reason to GIVE her the EC, not to DENY it. The unspoken message here is that she is a slut who is undeserving of EC because she is unmarried. And an unmarried woman shouldn’t be having DIRTY UNMARRIED SEX! So she deserves whatever she has coming to her. I thought we were trying to promote responsibility and reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions. This woman does everything right, and is made to feel like a whore. This is basic women’s health care we are talking about, and these doctors are supposed to put the patient’s health first. But instead they place their own outdated religious fanaticism and “morality” ahead of their patient. I am outraged and disgusted. I am so angry that people (especially doctors) are still this way in the year 2006 in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/2 "2006-09-26T22:04:51Z")
[QUOTE=nyctea scandiaca] WHY ON EARTH does it matter if she is married, or if she has kids? [/QUOTE] It doesn’t. Had she answered that she was married, I have no doubt the same fuckwits would have asked her where her husband was, and does he know she is killing his children? No one is being discriminated against here; all women will be denied access to EC, regardless of marital status. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/3 "2006-09-26T22:06:56Z")
When I needed it, I went to Planned Parenthood. Of course, this was in Austin. Hardly rural Ohio. I saw a doctor for my PCOS, a standard treatment for which is low dose birth control pills. She wouldn’t prescribe them for me, even though I needed them as therapeutic treatment only, because she considered them to be a chemical abortion. :mad: Well, at least she was honest. But she got no more business from me. She coulda made a MINT on the allergy appointments alone! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/4 "2006-09-26T22:07:55Z")
Well obviously it matters because as we all know, the only people who have sex outside of marriage are dirty whores and that they deserve what they get. :rolleyes: Good god, doctors are allowed to dispense routine medical care according to their own “moral criteria?” Isn’t he violating some kind of ethical standards? What the FUCK? :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/5 "2006-09-26T22:12:16Z")
**bangs head against brick wall** This is 2006, people. As in half a decade into the 21st centrury! 2006! I hope that she didn’t get pregnant. I hope that she didn’t NEED Plan B after all. I find it outrageous that women who need emergency contraception in her area can’t get it, unless they meet some doctor’s criteria. And I’m afraid that this woman is not alone. **resumes banging head against brick wall** ---
**Author:** ![Mouse\_Maven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@Mouse\_Maven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mouse_Maven)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/6 "2006-09-26T22:16:52Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Well obviously it matters because as we all know, the only people who have sex outside of marriage are dirty whores and that they deserve what they get. :rolleyes: Good god, doctors are allowed to dispense routine medical care according to their own “moral criteria?” Isn’t he violating some kind of ethical standards? What the FUCK? :mad: [/QUOTE] Hey, some pharmacists want to refuse dispensing EC because of their religion. I’m all for this, if they allow Jewish grocery clerks to refuse to touch pork products, keep meat out of the stores for Hindus, and all corporations refrain from using images of people and animals _ever_ to follow a literal interpretation of the Koran. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/7 "2006-09-26T22:23:06Z")
After the response I got from the first hospital, I would’ve lied. No doubt about it. I consider that a much better consequence to deal with than a baby I’m ill-suited (for any reason that I determine) to raise right. Now if she continued this approach because she plans to use it in some sort of court case eventually and the documentation aspect was necessary (and she’s willing to do whatever else is needed of her that follows – either way) to continue, then she’s one brave lady. However, we all know it shouldn’t be like this and one person putting themselves and a child’s future on the line because they won’t do the slightly (in light of the ultimate situation and how this would be comparative) unethical part up front, than sadly that’s not being healthy for anyone. So, fuck those people and _their_ immoral (in my humble opinion) judgments that condemn others away from the life _they_ choose. We all should be allowed to decide for ourselves. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/8 "2006-09-26T22:26:08Z")
It’s so sad, because if you read the (long) comments on her blog, other women are trying to help out with makeshift regimens of ordinary birth control pills that may work as EC. For example, one commenter said: > [@](#): > > I don’t know if you’re out of the window yet, or you’ve manged to get EC, but I had a similar problem a few years ago, and my friend (who is an ER nurse) had me take two normal birth control pills, and then two more an hour later. He said it was pretty much the same thing. His wife was generous enough to let me have some of hers. And another: > [@](#): > > One of our local doctors wrote a letter to the editor in which she said “Almost any birth control pill can be taken as emergency contraception within three days of unprotected intercourse to prevent a pregnancy. You will need to take between two and five of the regular “pills” to achieve this goal.” This is an fyi for anybody who has this problem in the future. Plain old BC pills are practically harmless anyways. You can’t die if you overdose on them, like you can if you take too much Advil or Tylenol. Yet those medicines are over-the-counter, and BC pills are strictly regulated and prescription-only. You should have seen what I had to go through recently when I ran out of BC refills, and was on the other side of the country. The begging and pleading I had to go through to get my doctor to send a refill to the pharmacy was ridiculous. This is a basic, maintenance medication that many women must take every day for the majority of their childbearing years, yet it’s such a pain in the ass to get. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/9 "2006-09-26T22:33:59Z")
[QUOTE=Mouse\_Maven] Hey, some pharmacists want to refuse dispensing EC because of their religion. I’m all for this, if they allow Jewish grocery clerks to refuse to touch pork products, keep meat out of the stores for Hindus, and all corporations refrain from using images of people and animals _ever_ to follow a literal interpretation of the Koran. [/QUOTE] Yes. A doctor swears to do only good for his patient’s health. Religion has no place in medicine. This is _basic women’s health_ we’re talking about here. Do you think doctors grill men about their marital status before they prescribe Viagra? I have never heard of such a case. It’s not just religious discrimination, but gender discrimination against women by old-fashioned chauvinist zealots. The attitude is, an unmarried woman shouldn’t be having sex, so shame on her; and that women are put here on this earth only to be vessels for bearing children. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/10 "2006-09-26T22:39:33Z")
I forgot about taking more of regular birth control to achieve the same thing. Shit, if I was in that situation and had to get a refill that I didn’t have access to, once again you can bet your bottom dollar that I’d lie to do so. Why yes, doctor/whoever, I dropped the whole thing down the garbage disposal. Or; my purse was stolen with them in it! Or; my husband/whoever hid them as a gag and I’ve turned the whole house upside down and still can’t find them… it’s been however far out it needs to be to sound credible and make them give up the goods. Assholes who ought to consider how much _they_ are willing to help you raise this child _they_ are assisting in creating. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/11 "2006-09-26T22:46:06Z")
[QUOTE=faithfool] After the response I got from the first hospital, I would’ve lied. No doubt about it. [/QUOTE] Might not be a good idea. From what the blogger said, it sounds like she has medical insurance. If she claimed to be married at the doctor’s office and it’s recorded in her records, the insurance company might get all up in arms, thinking she has a husband whose policy should cover her. There’s a lot of issues they might have. Who knows? Insurance companies can be funny about things like that. If she claimed she’d been raped, the hospital might call the police. Then lying is _definitely_ a bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/12 "2006-09-26T22:50:17Z")
[Here’s the story of a woman who had an abortion because a doctor wouldn’t prescribe emergency contraception for her.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/02/AR2006060201405.html) To all doctors who refuse to prescribe emergency contraception: Fuck you. To any doctor to whom it would make a difference if a woman was married or not: Fuck you with a rusty chainsaw, sideways. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/13 "2006-09-26T22:52:50Z")
But I still see no reason even that those couldn’t be gotten around as well. Like that husband is unemployed or disabled (but doesn’t get any sort of governmental help) or he’s abandoned them. As to rape, I’d think you could claim it was someone you knew (but refused to name for fear of the outcome and who you’d gone along with so that it wasn’t violent) and I don’t believe they can _make_ you press charges. Can they? No matter what the costs, I’d be open to responsible for lying before I’d be willing to jeopardize another human being’s future and all around health. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/14 "2006-09-26T23:04:04Z")
I don’t want to be a prick here but I’ve read through her blog post and the strory is just too fantastic for me to believe. Any external means of veryifying the credibility of this report? Ohio was a swing state in the last election and I have a seriously hard time believing that _multiple_ doctors would refuse her EC. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/15 "2006-09-26T23:10:43Z")
Okay, let me change my stance to saying that this “woman’s blog” is fucked up beyond any shred of credibility. [http://bitingbeaver.blogspot.com/2006/03/bbs-story.html](http://bitingbeaver.blogspot.com/2006/03/bbs-story.html) ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/16 "2006-09-26T23:11:51Z")
For what it is worth, you can get seasonale from an online pharmacy with the ‘doctors questionaire’ method that many men use to get Viagra. I would guess that you can also get other birth control pills, I just know about the seasonale from my co-worker who was without insurance and found that the single pack online cost less than the same with the doctors visit - by almost 75 dollars. ---
**Author:** ![threemae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/17 "2006-09-26T23:16:09Z")
Apparently this isn’t the only time that she has received medical care straining credibility: [http://bitingbeaver.blogspot.com/2005/09/power-of-penis.html](http://bitingbeaver.blogspot.com/2005/09/power-of-penis.html) ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/18 "2006-09-26T23:15:37Z")
My wife is a resident in Ohio who is discovering this reality first hand and is disgusted by it. Even some of the doctors she respects won’t proscribe EC. And this is in one of the more liberal parts of Ohio. Does that confirm it to some extent? The reality is that I’m of two minds on this. I think that it’s hard to argue that doctors should be forced to do something they consider unethical. However, there are two problems with this. First of all, doctors are supposed to operate in the real world. And in the real world EC doesn’t abort anything: it prevents conception and pregnancies from starting in the first place. So the idea that this is a chemical abortion is just batty, not scientific. Second of all, giving a patient a prescription they ask for is not the same thing as performing a proceedure that goes against your morals. You aren’t the one administering the EC, you are just signing off on the fact that patient has need of it and that it isn’t contraindicated, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/19 "2006-09-26T23:17:05Z")
Here’s a really useful link: > **[getthepill.com - on-line prescriptions for emergency contraception (the...](https://www.getthepill.com/)** > > getthepill.com - on-line prescriptions for emergency contraception (the morning after pill) Of course, there’s a long list of places where they’re not able to help you, but still, if all else fails… as long as you have a pharmacy that will sell it by precription, you can get the damned thing. Assuming you live in the right states. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272/20 "2006-09-26T23:26:15Z")
Not to make a call yet one way or another, but just because she’s an extremely strident feminist doesn’t negate her alleged experiences. I’m not saying that doesn’t disregard them possibly being either skewered or seen through a distorted perception, but they may be true all the same. Is there any way to verify credibility? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disgusting-tale-of-womans-unsucessful-search-for-emergency-contraception/374272.md?page=2)