The Back Up Your Birth Control campaign aims to educate individuals about emergency contraception (EC) – and put it into their hands if (or before) a crisis arises.

You are a critical link between EC and the women who need it. Women look to you for information and advice about this back-up birth control method. And they turn to you if they need EC.

Here are a few things you can do to help:

Doctors and other health care providers...

• Talk to your colleagues about EC.
• Talk to your patients about EC and offer to provide them with an advance supply or prescription for EC. Inform adult patients that EC is available (under the brand names Plan B^®, Plan B^® One-Step and Next Choice™) over-the-counter in pharmacies. Remind young women patients under 17 that they will continue to need a prescription for EC.
• Buy a supply of EC and offer to sell it at cost to your female patients of reproductive age.
• Send letters to your local pharmacies encouraging them to stock EC – and letting them know you provide it. Encourage pharmacists to refer women who cannot purchase EC over-the-counter (young women under 17 and women without ID) to you for a prescription.

Pharmacists…

• Make sure you have EC in stock.
• Consider providing confidentiality cards at your pharmacy counter for patients who may not feel comfortable requesting EC in front of other customers. Download cards here or order a free supply by calling 1-800-330-1271.
• Talk to your colleagues about EC.
• Learn more about EC through an on-line EC training program.
• When women are given prescriptions for birth control pills that can also be used as EC, be sure to include information on that option.
• Find out about pharmacy access to EC in your state.

You can also check out your own professional association’s website for EC materials.

For specific questions about the campaign, e-mail campaign director Amy Boldosser (aboldosser@nirhealth.org) or Aileen Gleizer (agleizer@nirhealth.org).