# Should a police report be required to obtain emergency contraception? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 3, 2013, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-police-report-be-required-to-obtain-emergency-contraception/657385 "2013-05-03T04:58:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-police-report-be-required-to-obtain-emergency-contraception/657385/41 "2013-05-14T22:04:19Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > **Broomstick** -I commend those women for that choice. I don’t. I understand why it sounds like such an uplifting sort of thing, a story of forgiveness over hate, and so forth, but that’s not how it turned out in real life. The woman who kept the child never had a good relationship with the girl and as an adult her life is now a complete mess and every relationship she has ever had with another human being has turned to utter crap. She is angry, bitter, lonely, and emotionally disturbed. The child given up - well, I actually do know what happened to him, adopted by a relative who, although she provides what he needs on a biological level doesn’t really give him the love and attention he needs. He’s a lonely boy, father unknown, who goes up to any man he sees asking if the man will be his daddy. In other words: no happily ever after for anyone involved. These children weren’t birthed from an abundance of love or forgiveness, it was because the women’s religions forbid abortion under any circumstances and the women felt it was either give birth to these children or burn in hell for eternity. I don’t think it’s _impossible_ for a woman to genuinely choose to raise a child conceived in rape, but I suspect such a “choice” is often due to pressure of one sort or another. Likewise, while I know several women who have had abortions with no regret I’ve also known a couple who suffered psychological trauma from having one done. All anecdotal, and we all know the dangers of such things as evidence of anything, but they serve to illustrate that all of this deals with individuals and complicated circumstances and emotions. One of the criminal things about rape is that there is so often no way to fix everything, to make it as though it hadn’t happened. TL:DR - the woman who kept the child of rape might have saved her own soul, but her daughter would have been better off being adopted to a family that didn’t know her bio-family and would not have held the circumstances of her conception against her. The woman who gave up the kid might have saved the kid from a bad fate, but his current circumstances aren’t wonderful and arguably there is emotional neglect and he’s viewed as a burden by those around him. Which in no way should be taken to mean women should be pressured to either keep or abort - I just wish these women had been truly free to decide what was best for them and possible offspring instead of being shoved into a decision. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-police-report-be-required-to-obtain-emergency-contraception/657385/42 "2013-05-14T22:12:49Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Abortion and emergency contraception should be limited to those cases where it is absolutely necessary. Those cases would include at a bare minimum any time a woman is or might be pregnant when she does not want to be. Good fucking job. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-police-report-be-required-to-obtain-emergency-contraception/657385/43 "2013-05-14T23:30:02Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Absolutely fucking hell no. perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-police-report-be-required-to-obtain-emergency-contraception/657385/44 "2013-05-15T10:51:37Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > In Australia, RU486 has been recommended for the pharmaceutical benefits scheme which means the cost is government subsidised. > > It requires a prescription from a doctor as far as I know, but certainly nothing else. > > Short form, a woman who has consensual sex without protection can choose to go and get the drug afterwards to prevent pregnancy. It’s referred to here as “the morning after pill”. Has that changed recently? AFAIK, that is not an approved indication for that pill in Aus. So it won’t be prescribed unless the Doctor is willing to prescribe “off-label”, and then shouldn’t be available on subsidy. And for a number of reasons, I think that would be unlikely. When used for abortion in Aus, I understand that it’s use is supervised in a clinic. It is more than just “prescription from doctor”. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-police-report-be-required-to-obtain-emergency-contraception/657385/45 "2013-05-15T11:21:11Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > TY **kellner** for fighting my ignorance! This thread seems incredibly moot now. Now?:dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-a-police-report-be-required-to-obtain-emergency-contraception/657385.md?page=2)