Approved by the Italian Drug Administration (AIFA) after a long debate, and with significant restrictions, the 5-day-after pill, mired in controversy, still struggles to get mass distribution in Italy, a Country dealing with strong biases and wrong beliefs on contraceptives. A survey on emergency contraception has been recently presented in Venice at the 15th World Congress on Human Reproduction.
The survey, involving over 1,200 women, shows that in Italy almost three women aged 16 to 45 out of ten risk unwanted pregnancy when having intercourse. The use of contraceptives by women is high, but 45% of them is convinced that emergency contraception leads to an abortion. Moreover, there is widespread misinformation on the way emergency contraception works: 34% of women simply do not know what it does. 15% of them still believe it has a negative impact on their fertility, and 16% think that emergency contraception is only effective on their first sexual intercourse.
Basically, only 20% of women, after unprotected intercourse, resort to emergency contraception. Which of course does not help decrease the number of abortions. According to data gathered by gynecologists, in 2009 about a third of pregnancies were unwanted; half of these were interrupted. To make things worse, it can be difficult to obtain emergency contraception: almost half of the women struggled to get the drug and 18% felt uncomfortable, judged, or actually criticised by health workers, when asking for assistance. There are, however, encouraging signals, both in terms of women’s awareness and commercialization of more efficient products.
Many are still the problems women have to face in resorting to emergency contraception. The distribution of ellaOne (the 5-day-after pill) has been long delayed for bureaucratic reasons and adverse institutional stances. Moreover, very restricting criteria have been introduced, such as the request of a pregnancy test, something unheard of in other European Countries where the product is being sold. Particularly influential in applying these limitations was the Catholic pressure, which contributes to spread the false idea that morning-after or 5-day-after pills are abortion pills. For instance, the Movement for Life, a well-known no-choice movement, appealed to the Lazio Regional Tribunal to prevent its distribution. Even in the Parliament a bipartisan group raised a point of order, asking Mr Balduzzi, the Health Minister, to ban EllaOne, on the ground that it is an “abortion” pill, and ignoring the scientific community’s opinion, which states the exact opposite. If anything, the pill is regarded as a means to contain abortions, as gynecologists confirm, and anyway, according to the World Health Organisation, we can only speak of an “embryo” after the 14th day from inception.
This proves once more how the intervention of church hierarchies and their -even partial- influence on our legislation have tangible consequences, putting Italy and its people in a minority position within Western European Countries. Standing up to this situation is not therefore a self-serving act of anticlericalism, but rather a vital fight for a more modern Country that respects everyone’s rights and guarantees equal opportunities. Even to Catholic women who need to resort to emergency contraception.