Radio Workshop

More Access to Morning-After (Transcript)

by Emily Grossman

NARRATION:

There are 10 city-run Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinics in the five boroughs of Manhattan. At the Harlem Clinic on 5th Avenue, sixteen year-old Tamika had just made her first visit.

[Street noise]

TAPE: Sandifer: Basically I had unprotected sex with this boy and I wanted to make sure everything was alright.

NARRATION:

Tamika, who is in high school, received free STD testing at the clinic. If she needs testing again in a few months from now after having unprotected sex, the clinic will offer her emergency contraception free of charge at the same time she gets testing.

TAPE: Sandifer: I got the results.

E: Oh.

[Paper rattling noise.]

E: So you're okay.

S: Yeah.

E: It says negative for HIV. And negative for syphilis?

S: Yeah.

E: So, congratulations.

S: Thank you.

NARRATION:

Tamika says she knew she wasn't pregnant when she went in for testing. But if she were pregnant, she wouldn't take emergency contraception.

TAPE: Tamika: If I was pregnant to be pregnant, then I would keep my baby.

NARRATION:

She thinks the medication simulates abortion. Actually, emergency contraception is different than RU-486, the abortion pill. It consists of an increased dose of birth control pills. Still, some women have misgivings about taking it.

TAPE: Brandi: A higher dose? That's like any kind of drug is like a mega-dose, it hurts your body.

NARRATION:

Twenty-one year old Brandi, who sells herbal supplements, had just used the Upper West Side city-run clinic.

TAPE: Brandi: It doesn't assist your body in what it would naturally do, so I wouldn't be interested.

Emergency contraception is 85 percent effective if a woman takes the medication within the first 72 hours after having unprotected sex. Often, someone who has contracted or thinks they have contracted an STD has practiced unsafe sex, says Destiny Lopez of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. That's why, she says, it makes sense to offer testing and emergency contraception in the same place.

TAPE: LOPEZ: The women that actually go to those clinics generally tend be low-income and have higher rates of unintended pregnancy and therefore abortion. So to actually have that on-site we're gonna be actually incurring a cost savings.

NARRATION:

It will cost the city about one million dollars a year to offer the drug at city clinics. Without insurance, emergency contraception can cost anywhere from 25 to 55 dollars. A woman paying out of pocket for the pills saves about 160 dollars by not having an abortion. And the savings is a lot bigger for women who can avoid unwanted pregnancies by taking the medication. Back in front of the city-run clinic on the Upper West Side, Brandi has her own method of birth control.

[outside ambi]

TAPE: BRANDI: Emily: So if you were in a situation where you thought you might have had unprotected sex, you now, what would you do? What would be your course of...PRAY, that I'm not pregnant. But I wouldn't take a mega-dose of chemicals.

NARRATION:

An epidemiologist at the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene says city clinics will offer free emergency contraception to clients unless the demand increases their traffic significantly. She says that if the cost of providing the pills starts to cut into other services, the Department will look into charging a small fee for the prescription.

For Columbia Radio News, I'm Emily Grossman.

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