News

May 7, 2020. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights published today a statement calling for the protection of women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights during the pandemic. Among others, the statement calls upon member states to consider access to abortion care, contraception, including emergency contraception, and maternal healthcare, as essential health care services…

May 2020. Last April, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) issued a statement pointing at key action points to ensure access to contraception services and supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contraception services and supplies are core components of essential health services and access to these is a fundamental human right. The key action…

April 14, 2020. The World Health Organisation (WHO) publishes Contraception/Family planning and COVID-19, a Questions and Answers (Q&A) document that provides short and to the point responses regarding contraception accessibility and use in the current times. Use of emergency contraception (EC), and other self-care methods, is proposed if access to regular methods is disrupted. The…

April 7, 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting more and more countries all over the planet, national contraception societies are developing guides to help ensure access to high quality sexual and reproductive health services that are safe for both users and providers during these times, and that help alleviate the current burden on the…

March 22, 2020. The Executive Committee and Secretariat of the European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health (ESC) announced this past week that, in order to safeguard against COVID-19 and the spread of the coronavirus, the 16th Congress of the ESC (Dublin May 13th-15th 2020) has been postponed until further notice.  See https://escrh.eu/event/16th-esc-congress/ for further information. …

March 2020. Two recent publications provide good up-dates on emergency contraception (and other methods) in Spanish:  Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) y Facultad de Salud Pública Bloomberg de Johns Hopkins/Centro para Programas de Comunicación (CCP), Proyecto de Conocimientos sobre la Salud. Planificación familiar: Un manual mundial para proveedores. Baltimore y Washington: CCP y OPS, 2019. Grupo…

February 2020. On February 21st, the Council of Ministers of the Belgium Federal Government, approved the Royal Decree that will make emergency contraception (EC) pills free of charge to all women, regardless of age. Until now, EC pills could be provided free of charge to women under 21. In addition, under this new policy, regular…

January 2020. A draft resolution calling for greater access to contraceptives, including emergency contraception, was adopted by the Equality Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) last December. The resolution highlights the key role contraception plays for women’s empowerment, and calls on member and observer states to ensure access to contraception…

December 2019. The first Sexual and Reproductive Rights Observatory report was launched on December 10th in Barcelona. The Observatory monitors the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights in Catalonia, in order to promote and protect them. The section on emergency contraception (EC) reports, among others, the case of a 16-year-old women who was denied her…

December 2019. A draft bill proposing a number of measures to make pregnancy termination services less accessible a was introduced in the Parliament at the end of November, by members of the Slovak National Party. During the discussion new amendments were introduced, among which, reinstating mandatory prescription to buy EC pills. The proposed bill was…

December, 2019. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist (RCOG) recommends to reclassify emergency contraception (EC) pills as General Sales List products (so they can be sold straight off the shelf without consultation), as a simple and cost-effective measure to improve women’s access to health care.  This is one of several recommendations made by RCOG in…