Birth of an era in sexual health
UH-OH. Contraceptive malfunction — and you have no plans to become a parent. Do you (a) freak out and hope you’re not pregnant (b) contact a UK abortion clinic or (c) keep calm and take the morning-after pill? Most women would opt for (c), since the morning-after pill, the MAP, has been available over the counter in Ireland since early 2011, without prescription. (It’s not literally for the morning after — it works up to 72 hours after sex, although a new MAP, which requires a prescription, works for up to five days after).
Prior to 2011, if you wanted the MAP — only legal in Ireland since 2001 — you had to go to your doctor. There was a case in 2010, reported in the Kerryman newspaper, of a doctor who refused on religious and ethical grounds to prescribe it. The patient had to travel to another city.
