Teenage Girls Given Birth Control Pill Over-The-Counter

London is experimenting with giving girls over the age of 16 the birth control pill over-the-counter.

Officials say this will help stem the soaring rate of teen pregnancies in the UK and may provide more privacy than going to the GP for prescriptions.

Access to the pill is a great way to stop teen pregnancies, but is this the right way to do it?

What has been happening so far is that when girls go to get emergency contraception the pharmacists have been offering them a more permanent method of birth control and many have been taking up that offer. This is a great teaching opportunity and it is great that it can finally be utilised on-the-spot.

But what about the lessons on how to take the pill properly? Looking at a girl’s family history to see if there are any contraindications?

I think will effective training and education pharmacists would be able to provide this service as well as GPs. In fact, they may even be able to do a better job because they can take the time to talk to their customers and won’t have to shuttle them out to reach their quota of patients for the day. We have all had experiences with terrible doctors who don’t listen and don’t explain things properly, so there’s no reason to think they would do this job better.

So long as the professional training is in place, and resources are provided to help people understand the pill (like Family Planning Association, for example), then this program could be incredibly successful in stopping unwanted pregnancies.

I look forward to seeing the results.