"Expanding knowledge and access
to emergency contraception"
"Expanding knowledge and access to emergency contraception in Europe"
January 2026 — In December 2025, European Union (EU) institutions reached a political agreement on a revised Victims’ Rights Directive confirming that survivors of sexual violence have the right to access sexual and reproductive healthcare, including emergency contraception, abortion care, and STI testing, where permitted under national law. This agreement marks the first time EU…
January 2026. According to the independent outlet Meduza, “since September 2025, Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, has blocked websites accused of “promoting refusal of childbirth””, including pages that provided information on and access to emergency contraception (EC) pills. The Emergency Contraception Storage Fund, a grassroots initiative to secure access to EC pills, was forced to…
December 2025. ECEC and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) have come together to merge their data on mifepristone for medical abortion and ulipristal acetate (UPA) for emergency contraception, with the aim of shedding light on the actual global availability of these essential medicines. A summary of this joint analysis has now been published in…
December 2025. A mystery-caller study from the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences shows that more than half of German community pharmacies give advice on emergency contraception (EC) that does not align with national guidelines. In a scenario where EC was not medically indicated — a combined pill taken less than 12 hours late — only…
November — The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the latest edition of its Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use (MEC), updating global guidance on the safety of contraceptive methods for people with specific health conditions or characteristics. A key change concerns emergency contraception (EC). For the first time, the MEC clearly states that EC…
November 2025. The European Consortium for Emergency Contraception (ECEC) has released a new publication bringing together recent data on knowledge and use of emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) from 23 countries. Although population-level studies on contraceptive practices have expanded in recent years, information on ECP use remains inconsistent, unsystematized, and often unpublished. To help address this,…
October 2025. World Health Organization’s (WHO) toolkit on Clinical Management of Rape and Intimate Partner Violence in Emergencies: Training Curriculum for Health Workers and Facilitator Guide is now available in Arabic, French, and Spanish here. Session 11, focused on clinical treatment and care for survivors of sexual assault, includes guidance on the provision of ulipristal…
October 2025 — Last September, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the 24th Model List of Essential Medicines (EML). Levonorgestrel (LNG) emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) have been included in the EML since 1999, and ulipristal acetate (UPA) ECPs since 2017, underscoring their continued importance in ensuring access to safe and effective reproductive health options. Essential…
October 2025. Today, ASKA Pharmaceutical, the marketing authorization holder of Japan’s only emergency contraceptive pill (ECP), announced it has received official approval to make the product available over the counter (OTC). This means people in Japan will soon be able to obtain emergency contraception directly from pharmacies without a prescription. This marks a historic milestone…
October 9, 2025 – The European Consortium for Emergency Contraception (ECEC) has issued a statement expressing full support for Dr. Jarosław Górnicki, a Polish physician under review by the Ministry of Health and the Medical Council for prescribing emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) to women in need. Since 2017, when Poland reinstated the prescription requirement for…
October 2005. ECEC is pleased to collaborate with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the International Federation of Abortion and Contraception Professionals (FIAPAC) on the webinar: Expanding mifepristone availability to improve access to medical abortion: three case studies, taking place on October 16 at 14:00 CET. The webinar is an invitation to think about how to…
October 2025. Provision of free-of-charge emergency contraceptive pills through the Pharmacy Contraception Service (PCS) is scheduled to begin in October 2025. The English government announced this measure in April 2025 as part of efforts to ensure equal access to safe and effective contraception across the country. The expansion has been described as “crucial to women’s…
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