AUGUSTA, GA - Late on a Sunday morning, I sit in my car waiting on my boyfriend who went to buy an emergency contraception pill.

The sun is warm as I wait. I see two professors from Augusta State University, where I go to school, enter through the doors of the pharmacy.

When my boyfriend returns to the car with no bags, he looks perplexed. He says the pharmacist refused to sell him Plan B because the woman involved has to purchase it herself.

Complaints that purchasing an emergency contraceptive in Georgia is a gamble are, in fact, true. Some pharmacies will sell it. Others will not. Those who will not are yet required to tell the customer where to get it.

However, there is another tricky part: A pharmacist, for personal beliefs, can refuse to sell it to men.

I consider the dozens of stories I have heard from other women who told me about using Plan B. They may have been sitting here like me because a condom broke, or they had sex while they were drunk or even because of a date rape. Now, they will have to walk down the bright lights of the pharmacy to the desk at back, simply because their boyfriend was forbidden to purchase it on their behalf.

As one woman reported in our survey, “I needed it after a night and I sent my boyfriend at the time into the 24-hour Walgreens. I was quite intoxicated and did not want to cause a scene. They would not sell it to him because he was not a female,” she wrote.

She was incensed. “To me, the Morning After Pill is much the same as a condom. If you can buy those in truck stop bathrooms, why can’t a male get Plan B?”

Taking the Morning After Pill — an emergency contraception — is a race against time. It has been shown to be effective up to three days, but it is still better to take it within the first 12 hours, if possible.

According to Lawrence Layman, a professor and chief in reproductive endocrinology, infertility and genetics at Medical College of Georgia (MCG), Plan B is made from the same hormones as some birth control pills.

The hormones work by keeping the woman’s ovary from releasing an egg, or ovulating. Hence, pregnancy cannot happen if there is no egg to join the sperm.

“It’s important to stress that it’s not inducing abortion,” Layman said.

Still, the Morning After Pill remains the focus of intense debate, particularly over whether pharmacists who oppose its use because of personal beliefs should be required to sell it.

A Walgreens pharmacist stated that he chooses to sell the emergency contraceptive to females only. He says he wants to make sure that the involved woman is at least 18 years old. Indeed, a prescription is required for those 17 years old or younger.

Sitting in her office surrounded by pro-choice flyers, posters and badges in little baskets on her desk, Mary Beth Pierucci, director of public policy at Planned Parenthood of Georgia, belongs to this category of people who fight for women’s rights. Planned Parenthood, a pro-choice organization, is not an easy place to work. Regularly, there are people demonstrating right in front of the building or trying to convince women who are on their way to Planned Parenthood not to go there.

“Legally, you should be able to get Plan B over the counter as long as you show an ID that says you’re over 18,” said Pierucci. “It shouldn’t matter whether you’re a male or a female.”

Yet, according to a CVS pharmacy, even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stipulates that the Morning After Pill be available over the counter for adults, it is yet up to the pharmacist on duty to decide whether a male can buy it.

Bridgett Bloom, a social worker at MCG, recalled an experience she had when she sent her boyfriend to buy Plan B on her behalf.

“The pharmacist did sell it to (my boyfriend) but only after he made him feel bad about it,” Bloom said.

Why does it seem to be such a big deal to buy Plan B?

According to Pierucci, two big controversies surround the Morning After Pill.

First, many people confuse the emergency contraceptive pill with the abortion pill.

We conducted an online poll in which we asked a few questions about the Morning After Pill. Overall, 281 people answered our survey, and at least 30 people were convinced that Plan B has abortive effects.

“I believe this is murder and should not be made available to anyone,” one of them wrote.

“I think it is tragic that our society has come to the point that there are people who actually think it would be acceptable for a minor to acquire a pill to induce abortion over-the-counter,” another one stated.

However, Pierucci reiterated Dr. Layman’s view that this was not an abortion pill.

“If you have an established pregnancy, the Morning After Pill will not harm the established pregnancy.”

The other big controversy has been about the age required to purchase the pill. Pierucci said some argue the Morning After Pill will make it easy for people to have unprotected sex, particularly for minors.

Yet, according to Dr. Layman, it would be a good idea to have the pill available to people who need it, so it would reduce unwanted pregnancy.

“The reality is that half of all pregnancies are unintended,” Pierucci said. “Any greater access we can have to prevent unintended pregnancies will also decrease abortions.”
One of the people who answered our survey related why his wife happened to take the emergency contraceptive.

“My wife and I had unprotected sex after a little too much holiday cheer and had that ‘Oh crap’ realization the next morning. It was a wonderful opportunity to rectify a mistake that could have haunted us for 18 years.”

Likewise, Karen Gordon is a recent ASU graduate and owner of an arts organization that produces and promotes local jazz and local jazz artists. She used the Morning After Pill twice. She went both times to Planned Parenthood.

“At that time, I had two teenagers and was a student at ASU,” she said. “I was not married and didn’t want children.”

“Birth control information should be readily available to adolescents,” one of the people who answered our poll wrote. “In-depth sex education, including information about developing relationships, dating, social skills, is the best protection against
unwanted pregnancy and should be available in public schools.”

However, the state of Georgia puts the accent on abstinence. Even though it does depend on the school system to choose its own sex education, abstinence was even more emphasized under George W. Bush’s presidency. In fact, Georgia Abstinence Funds increased by $1 million in 2006 and federal funding was given to the schools that taught abstinence only. Yet this funding is going to end under President Obama’s administration.

By federal law, Plan B has been available over the counter for women 18 and older since August 2006. Soon, it will be sold over the counter to 17-year-olds, too.

If a young girl of 15 or 16 years old presented herself to Planned Parenthood to buy the Morning After Pill, she would have to see one of their doctors first who would go over her medical history, give her — if needed — a birth control pill prescription, and then only, Planned Parenthood would give her the emergency contraception pill.

Plan B reduces the risk of pregnancy by 89 percent if started within three days after unprotected sex, according to Pierucci.

“It’s effective as a back-up form of a birth control pill, but it’s not effective as a regular use of the birth control pill,” Pierucci said.

I am from France. The available emergency contraception there is called Norvelo, which has the same contraception hormones — levonorgestrel — as Plan B. Available to everybody without prescription, Norvelo is free for 17-year-olds and younger.

The French magazine Parents recently promoted the release of the movie “Juno” in DVD and gave quick facts about teen pregnancies. Parents stated that approximately 4,500 babies were born from teenage mothers every year in France.

The teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. is six times higher than in France. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy stipulated that in 2006 in Georgia, out of 1,000 teenagers between 15 and 19 years old, 54 of them gave birth. In France, it’s about eight births per 1,000 teens of that age.

Back in Paris, a few of my friends took the Morning After Pill but never experienced any problems with it.

As Bloom said about Planned Parenthood, “You can just walk in. They make it simple. No questions asked. No guilt felt.”

It seems that in France, every pharmacy looks like Planned Parenthood. “No questions asked. No guilt felt.”

As for side effects, according to our survey, some women claimed that they felt nauseous, moody or over-sensitive.

Dr. Layman said that nausea or vomiting is caused by the high dose of estrogen. Thus, Plan B that has levonorgestrel, synthetic progesterone, is known to be better tolerated. Yet, some women do not stand it well.

“The Morning After Pill makes you feel extremely nauseous. I do not think it encourages people to have sex without contraception. It is good to have for drunken mistakes and condom accidents,” wrote a woman on our survey.

As for the long-term effects, Dr. Layman stated that there are none, particularly if
the emergency contraceptive is only used when needed.

“If you happen to be on a birth control pill like Triphasil that has levonorgestrel, you can have the patient take four tablets of that and repeat it 12 hours later if they can’t go buy the emergency contraception pill,” he said.

On our survey, 66 percent of the respondents think the Morning After Pill should be available to every adult. To the question “At what age should one be able to get the Morning After Pill over the counter?” 28 percent answered “no age limits.”

Drugstores, such as Wal-Mart, CVS and Walgreens, sell Plan B, but there is no way to find out which pharmacist will sell it to men except by calling ahead. Barney’s Pharmacy in Augusta does not carry it.

According to Bloom, two of the easiest places in the area to get the Morning After Pill would be Planned Parenthood and The Birth Control Source.

After the pharmacist refused to sell Plan B to my boyfriend, we sat in the car for a few minutes. Outside, the sun was still warm. I was confused and had to face several options I did not even think about.

If I went in, I would have to go past the two professors I saw come into the pharmacy, and face the pharmacist who refused to give it to my boyfriend in the first place. And, of course, the price of Plan B (up to $50 before tax) was an issue, too. In France, my boyfriend would have paid $10.50 and had the Morning After Pill in hand. I thought the trip to the pharmacist would be the end of my journey. It was only the beginning.

I understand now why some women might drive away and decide to take the gamble they won’t get pregnant.