Pentagon Plans to Provide Emergency Contraception on US Military Bases Worldwide

[ensho]

http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=12209


The Pentagon will begin providing emergency contraception (EC) at US military base health facilities worldwide, the Department of Defense announced yesterday. The change is a result of a recommendation from the Pentagon's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, which voted in November 2009 that both Plan B and generic Next Choice should be included on the basic core formulary, a list of medications that are required to be stocked at all military health facilities, according to the Washington Post.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, (NARAL Pro-Choice America Press Release 2/4/2010) stated in a press release: "I firmly believe that this decision marks an end to the political intrusion of the previous administration that blocked military women from having this guaranteed access. It's a tragedy that women in uniform have been denied such basic health care. We applaud the medical experts for standing up for military women."

EC is effective up to five days (120 hours) after unprotected sex, birth control failure, or rape, but it is most effective (95 percent) if taken within 24 hours. Because of the time-sensitive nature of EC, over-the-counter access is crucial to its effective use. EC does not terminate an existing pregnancy.
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really good news. sanity prevails.

[pleah]

1. K&R

[femrap]

2. Guess they thought this was

better than putting women on trial for getting pregnant.

Sanity certainly took its damn sweet time in arriving to the minds of these military boyz.

Thanks for the good news.

[pleah]

5. +1

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

3. I think this is wonderful if 1-there is no glitch in not having them dispensed on moral grounds 2-

that the women not go on record and receive no blowback for needing to take them.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. Which goes along with the routine contraception they provided for..

a couple of generations. About time.

[Skidmore]

6. Keenan should address the real reason this action was required

and it wasn't basic birth control for after a night of reckless abandon. It has been well documented that women serving in the military are subjected to rape at a high rate and that the military has done precious little to protect them or prosecute the offenders. The military is not being sensitive, but covering its butt.