I’m so glad your wrote this. I’ll never forget the time I had stop hormone birth control for medical reasons, and was using condoms, when one broke. It has been years since I was on hormones, so plan B (the morning after pill) was my best back up. After googling I found out my local pharmacy (Walgreens) carried it and I didn’t need an appointment. However when I went there to ask for it, the guy at the counter just starred at me with a look of absolute horror. He told me only certain pharmacists were allowed to dispense it and theirs wouldn’t be in until much later and even then was to busy. He then continued to stare at me like I was some sort of murder (plan b suppresses ovulation, it’s not an abortion). He also told me I would be subject to an intense interview before I could get the drug. It was awful. Obviously plan b wasn’t my first line of birth control, that’s why it’s called by plan b! Things fail, though rarely, they do fail and there’s nothing wrong with using a backup plan. That’s called being responsible. I always have a plan B in my life, including in my birth control. I was preventing a potential abortion, which would have been my plan D.
I went home and called several other Walgreens, another one had a
female pharmacist who told me she was happy to dispense the medication. She treated me way better, though I still had to fill out a long paper document on why I wanted to suppress a potential pregnancy that acted like I had done something wrong for taking responsibility for my own reproduction. Still, eventually I got the treatment I needed.
I can’t even begin to imagine what a rape victim would have to go through if such a bill passed. They’d have to listen to a lecture on birth control after a traumatic event they didn’t even consent to. Yeah, I guess next time I’ll take responsibility for my rapist’s actions and get an IUD (and all the potential risks and side effects of having piece of metal inside my uterus) just in case he decides to rape me again. Ugh.