Today Is The 2007 Back Up Your Birth Control Day of Activism

From the Back Up Your Birth Control website:

Today, women have a second chance to prevent an unintended pregnancy.

Emergency Contraception – or EC for short – is a back-up method of birth control.  EC is also known as the morning after pill. EC is now available without a prescription to women 18 an older.  Women younger than 18 need a prescription from their doctor or other health care provider.

Emergency contraception ... has sometimes been called the “best-kept” secret in women’s health.

Widespread knowledge and use of this safe and effective back-up birth control method could prevent as many as half of the 3 million unintended pregnancies that occur each year in the U.S.

Yet many American women have still never heard of EC. Or they are confused about what it is. Or they don’t realize that it is actually available in the U.S. - and that they can keep it on hand, just in case.

To help remedy this, a coalition of organizations led by the Institute for Reproductive Health Access has joined together to launch an ongoing campaign to educate the public about EC.