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In October 2020, AIFA established the possibility of buy the 5 days later pill at the pharmacy, without prescription, even by minors. After the media turmoil, and the appeal by some prolific associations – which have long argued that behind the PGD there is a disguised abortion – the TAR confirmed the previously adopted decision.
This is just the latest of the many episodes that saw the morning after pill as the protagonist, already at the center of a long history of women’s struggles, prejudices and ideological battles whose existence is inevitably intertwined with other rights not granted, such as that abortion, for which our mothers, and even before our grandmothers, fought. The same ones that some women still fight for today.
What is the morning after pill?
The morning after pill (PGD) is a drug taken by women like method of emergency contraception, within 72 hours, 3 days, or 120 hours, 5 days, following sexual intercourse. The World Health Organization has cataloged the pill as anti-ovulatory, which prevents the release of the egg from the ovaries, and should not be confused with the drug for voluntary termination of pregnancy, RU-486.
In the European Union, since 2002, the morning-after pill has been at the center of several debates. Although the European Parliament on health and sexual rights recommended facilitating access to affordable emergency contraception, many years have passed for this drug to be made available without a prescription in many countries, including Italy.
On our territory, in fact, the morning-after pill has become SOP drug, or without prescription, from 10 October 2020.
Obstacles to women’s free choice
Despite the news from the TAR, which confirms the decision taken last October, the obstacles to the free choice of women over their own bodies are still too many. We saw this during the pandemic, when access to abortion was hindered in some regions, more than in others. And we also see this in the excessive reliance of health personnel on the right to lift conscientious objection and thus make the voluntary termination of pregnancy difficult.
but yet it is our right to choose our body and our life. The only news that the pill is there makes us breathe a sigh of relief. We can take it or not take it, but it is there. We can make love without fear in case there is an emergency.
But there is the downside, that is the presence of all those people who rather than accepting that we have this freedom, which belongs to us by right, accuses us of assuming something that goes against the biological function, that compromises us, that is wrong. .
Because of this we cannot let our guard down, neither today, nor ever. And it is true that women’s rights are never taken for granted and that we must always fight, even if it is not fair. But the body is ours and we decide. Because termination of pregnancy is our right, as is emergency contraception.
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