Barriers to emergency contraception in low income countries
If you are a female, you probably take it for granted that you can walk into a pharmacy and purchase emergency contraception if something goes wrong.
But for many women in low and middle-income countries, this isn’t an option.
This is despite the fact emergency contraceptive, specifically emergency contraceptive pills in particular are recommended to be on the essential medicines list by the World Health Organisation.
The availability of emergency contraceptive pills, of ECPs, vary from country to country. Some countries have no access at all, while others have access – but at a cost.
Dr Angela Dawson is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health at UTS. She has studied the access to ECP across the world, and spoke to Ellen Leabeater to provide an overview of the challenges of availability and cost.
Image: Mike Mozart on Flickr.
