All military health facilities offering emergency contraceptives - Getting out, military health issues - Navy Times

All military health facilities offering emergency contraceptives

Every military treatment facility and health clinic must now stock pills that can prevent pregnancy if taken within three days of having sex.

The change comes as a result of a recommendation by a committee of Defense Department physicians and pharmacists. Commonly known as “morning-after pills,” the drug had been stocked at some, but not all, military treatment facilities, with the decision on whether to do so left up to local officials.

The Military Health System approved the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee’s November decision on Feb. 3, meaning that the pills must now be stocked in all military treatment facilities, said Cynthia Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman. Stocking will begin immediately, Smith said.

That includes bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon says.

The committee’s decision was based on a desire for uniformity and did not reflect any specific direction from the Obama administration, said Marine Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.

Each service has a policy that supports the availability of emergency contraceptives at military treatment facilities, according to the committee. But while some facilities provide emergency contraception over the counter, others may require a prescription, Smith said.

The pills, which contain the hormone levonorgestrel, are known as the generics Plan B and the newer Plan B One Step, and by the trade name Next Choice.

Plan B is available over the counter for those age 17 and older; those who are younger must have a prescription. Military women serving at overseas locations must get it from a Defense Department dispensary.

The decision reverses a 2002 Bush administration decision to reject a committee recommendation to make the drug available to military women.

That decision had been partially reversed in 2006 after the Food and Drug Administration approved Plan B for sale without a prescription. The drug was then added to the Uniform Formulary, a list of drugs covered by the Tricare medical plans but that are optional items to have in stock in military facilities.

The Pentagon committee voted 13-2 last fall to add it to the Basic Core Formulary, which is a list of drugs that must be carried at all full-service treatment facilities. Prior to the Pentagon’s accepting the committee’s recommendation, Smith said, “virtually all the MTFs and clinics carried emergency contraception drugs already. They could also stock Plan B or the generic version should they choose to do so.”

Controversy

Although the drug already was widely available, the decision to make it universally so disappointed anti-abortion advocates, one of whom called the pill “a dangerous and controversial drug” and said that, in addition to usage amounting to legal abortion, it will “eviscerate” the protections afforded military health care providers who are allowed to decline to participate “directly or indirectly in medical procedures that they find morally or religiously objectionable.”

“It is important to remember that military members, including health care providers, will not be able to walk away from their duties because they object to ‘emergency contraception,’ ” said Denise Burke of Americans United for Life. “Forced to violate their consciences, many military providers will leave the military when their service contracts expire, endangering quality of care and military readiness.”

Abortion rights advocates supported the decision. “We applaud the Pentagon for ensuring that every woman honorably serving our country and the spouses of military personnel stationed around the world will have access to the same basic reproductive health care available to women in the United States,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. “This latest decision is … another step toward ensuring every woman has the ability to prevent unintended pregnancy and plan healthy families.”

The argument over whether usage amounts to legal abortion comes down to personal beliefs. The scientific finding, according to the National Institutes of Health, is that levonorgestrel does not end pregnancy but rather prevents ovulation or fertilization. The hormone will not end an existing pregnancy, NIH says.

The Pentagon committee does not recommend levonorgestrel as a primary form of birth control, Smith said. Military treatment facilities also carry contraceptives.

Availability of military facilities to end pregnancy via abortion is severely limited. By U.S. law, military facilities may not perform abortions “except when the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term or in the case in which the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest.”

Abortions in the latter case must be privately funded.