Morning-after-pill to be available to medical card holders

Medical card holders will no longer have to go to their GP for a prescription for the morning-after-pill from July 1.

Instead, women can go straight to the pharmacy, as private patients have been able to do for the past five years.

The extension of the GMS scheme to include the provision of emergency contraception will be announced today by Health Minister Simon Harris at the annual meeting of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) in Croke Park.