by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Everyone makes mistakes.
But if one of those mistakes might cause a pregnancy, emergency contraception such as Plan B should be readily available, student Arielle Nylander said.
"It should be available everywhere," she said. "I've taken it. It's so helpful to have something like that. It's really a great pill."
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This year, the Student Health Center began offering Plan B for $30 without a prescription.
The pill works the same as birth control pills, by preventing an egg from being released or stopping sperm from reaching the egg.
Student Camilo Brokaw said it's important to have the pill available at colleges.
"Unfortunately, in this country, a lot of people don't really understand contraception," he said. "People in college are going to be in that bumpy experimenting stage. If they're going to make a mistake, there's a good chance it will happen in college."
The pill can reduce the chance of conception by 89 percent, according to the Princeton University Web site.
Rena Covell, a certified nurse practitioner in women's health at the center, said it's important to have a backup for people who aren't used to using contraception.
"People in college are starting birth-control methods, so they're inexperienced," she said. "They might have a situation that they didn't plan for that someone that wasn't so much of a novice with their birth control wouldn't have had."
Students should buy emergency contraception before they need it, she said.
"My philosophy is to have it on hand readily," she said. "Then if you need it, you don't have to worry about the pharmacy being closed, or anything else that might come up."
Making it easier for students to get the pill will save them from bigger problems, Brokaw said.
"If this is something that's easy for them to get their hands on, it could prevent them from having to worry about abortion and trickier things like that," he said. "Anything that can be done to prevent a child having to come into a family that's not ready for it is probably good."
If a woman is worried that she might get pregnant, there is almost no reason not to take the pill, Covell said.
"It has very low side effects," she said. "I don't want people to not want to take it because they're worried about what it might do to them."
About one in four women who take Plan B feel sick to their stomach, and about 6 percent vomit, according to the Princeton Web site.
The health center has sold about 10 doses of Plan B since the beginning of the year.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Plan B for over-the-counter sales in August 2006.
Although Plan B is often called the morning-after pill, it should be taken as soon after sex as possible, according to the Web site. It is effective up to five days
after sex.
The pill is not the same as an abortion, because it will have no effect once a pregnancy has started, according to the Web site.
"I see nothing wrong with it ethically," Brokaw said. "Accidents happen. If you can avoid that turning into a pregnancy, you should be able to."
Information about Plan B:
It works similarly to birth control pills, by preventing an egg from being released and preventing sperm from reaching the egg.
It is effective up to five days after sex but should be taken as soon as possible.
It has up to an 89 percent chance of preventing a pregnancy.
It should be taken if a condom broke, two people had sex without using contraceptives or a woman had sex unwillingly.
It is not the same as the abortion pill RU-486, which halts pregnancies once they have started.
Birth control pills taken in high doses can be used as emergency contraceptives, but they are less effective and more likely to cause nausea than Plan B.
Source: Princeton University emergency contraception Web site
