Call for morning after pill to be available on medical card

The morning after pill should be available to women under the medical card scheme, pharmacists have claimed.

A survey by the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) found 18% of women with a medical card chose to get emergency contraception from a pharmacy as opposed to getting it free on prescription from their GP.

IPU vice-president Kathy Maher said pharmacists already offer seasonal flu vaccination services without charge to medical card patients — so a service for the morning after pill should be put in place.