Madison Alejandria hasn’t been lucky with condoms. At 17, after only her second time having sex, she discovered the condom that her boyfriend had worn had split open at some point amid the passion. Instead of seeking help, she did nothing but hope for the best. “I was too scared to talk to someone,” Alejandria said, recalling what had happened two years ago. “I was naďve. I thought, ‘How could it be possible to get pregnant after only the second time?’”
It took about a month for her to realize she was wrong—she was pregnant. “I was scared. And it took a while for me to do anything.” She knew right away she wanted an abortion, but another month passed before she talked about it with her aunt, who eventually arranged the procedure with a doctor.
Less than a month after her abortion, Alejandria and her boyfriend tore another condom. But this time, after hearing talk in the media about the “morning-after pill” (also known as Plan B), an emergency contraceptive designed to prevent pregnancy within 72 hours of unprotected sex or contraceptive failure, she was not going to let herself get pregnant again. The next morning, she went to the pharmacy to make a purchase that may have saved her from a second abortion. “It pretty much saved my life,” she said. “I would have been way too embarrassed to see that doctor again.”
Plan B became available for purchase without a prescription in Canada on Apr. 19, 2005, just two months before Alejandria had to use it. It was not yet available over-the-counter the first time the condom broke, but if she was a little more aware of it and had simply talked to her doctor to get a prescription, she might have prevented ever needing to have an abortion.
According to Statistics Canada, there were 33,142 pregnancies in women between the ages of 15 and 19 in 2003. That means that there were about 32 pregnancies per 1,000 Canadian women within that age range. There are no statistics yet indicating whether Plan B has had any effect on pregnancy rates in Canada.
Alykhan Hirani, a pharmacist who has counselled clients wanting to get their hands on the morning-after pill, said that a lot of teenage pregnancies happen because many teens feel too humiliated to get help or ask questions. The solution, he said, is more birth control education in schools.
The morning after pill is considered safe, and the side effects, most commonly nausea and abdominal pain, are usually not severe. Depending on how soon it is taken after intercourse, Plan B can be up to 89 per cent effective in preventing pregnancy.
But if you use Plan B for non-emergency situations as a normal contraceptive, Christopher Yee, pharmacist and owner of two Shoppers Drug Mart stores, said that you are “repeating risk behavior,” since it won’t protect you from sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV.
In an emergency situation like Alejandria’s, Plan B is a great backup—and that’s really all it’s meant for.
Daniel Keyes is a second-year journalism student at Ryerson University
