Consumer Tips

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Not all women have access to emergency contraception (EC) through their local Planned Parenthood or Emma Goldman clinic. It is often a challenge for women who must seek out a pharmacy that stocks EC and a pharmacist that will dispense it. Here are some tips to make the process much easier.

Tips for Accessing Emergency Contraception at your Local Pharmacy
Emergency contraception (EC) is a safe, effective and legal form of contraception. The following is a set of consumer tips to help you more smoothly and easily access this second chance at birth control at your local pharmacy.

 There is a distinction between pharmaCIES and pharmaCISTS when you are trying to purchase EC. Some pharmacies will not stock this product; therefore, no pharmacists working at that facility can dispense EC. Some pharmacies will stock EC, yet individual pharmacists may choose not to dispense this product due to moral or religious beliefs.

If you are looking to fill a prescription for EC:

Decide where the closest family planning clinic or pharmacy is to you. Click here for locations of the Iowa Planned Parenthood clinics as well as the Emma Goldman clinic in Iowa City. If a pharmacy is your closest option, check the Pharmacy Directory  to see if your pharmacy participated in the Project Pharmacy survey.

If your pharmacy participated in the survey, you will know if your pharmacy stocks EC or not and if any pharmacists at that pharmacy refuse to dispense EC.

Call the pharmacy.

Even if your pharmacy participated in the survey and Project Pharmacy gave them a thumbs up, you still might want to call to ensure they have EC in stock and that the pharmacist currently on duty will dispense EC. If the information you receive from this call is different from the survey response; for example, we give them a thumbs up and that is not accurate, please contact us so we can resurvey and possibly “mystery shop” them to confirm the pharmacy’s policies and practice around EC. If needed, the thumbs up or down can be changed to better reflect what is happening on a day to day basis.

If your pharmacy did not participate in the survey, we suggest:

  1. Call them to see if they stock EC.
     
  2. Ask if all pharmacists at that pharmacy dispense EC.

    3.  
    1. If all pharmacists will dispense, you can get your prescription filled.
       
    2. If not all pharmacists will dispense, ask when a pharmacist who will dispense will be on duty. If this information is not available or not given, ask if they can refer you to a pharmacy within 5-10 miles that does dispense EC.

Contact Project Pharmacy.

If you had a positive experience accessing EC, please report this to Project Pharmacy and we can confirm or add a thumbs up on our web page for that pharmacy.

If you did not have a positive experience accessing EC, please report this to Project Pharmacy and we can confirm or add a thumbs down on our web page for that pharmacy.

Be a confident and active player in your health care experience by following the consumer tips provided above.

If you would like to become active in Project Pharmacy,  e-mail us.

 

Last updated 8/28/07