People across the nation are waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to drop what could be a monumental decision affecting abortion access in this country.
READ: What happens in Wisconsin if federal abortion law is overturned?
As a result of the expected ruling, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsinhealth centers have started distributing Make-a-Plan pregnancy prevention kits.
The kits are being distributed at all 22 centers across the state and include emergency contraception, also known as “the morning after pill.”
The organization’s spokesperson Lisa Boyce explains the impetus for the kits. “Now that we know that the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe [v. Wade], which means in Wisconsin abortion will likely be criminalized, we are redoubling our efforts to inform patients about the importance of pregnancy prevention, particularly if they are not planning on starting a family."
“So the Make-a-Plan kit is provided to all of our patients. And it includes a dose of emergency contraception and includes a pregnancy test, condoms, as well as information about what is happening with the status of abortion,” she explains.
The Make-a-Plan kits are available in all 22 Planned Parenthood health centers across the state. Boyce says most of their patients already receive pregnancy prevention measures like emergency contraception and condoms. “This tool kit is something new for new patients and those who are uninsured who wouldn't normally get these added pregnancy prevention tools."
Boyce says low-income women in Wisconsin of reproductive age who need free or publicly-funded birth control and live in areas without easy access to health centers should know that emergency contraception is available over the counter at most drugstores in their community. “But we know it's expensive,” she says. “So Planned Parenthood is trying to do our part to provide access to that emergency contraceptive tool without cost to our patients.”
Boyce says people need to know that emergency contraception is not an abortion method, it’s a contraceptive method that prevents pregnancy up to five days following unprotected sex.
She says the kits are not necessarily a long-term solution, but Planned Parenthood believes that information is power. Boyce adds the organization is doing everything it can do “to educate the public about ways they can control their health, through sex education, through information about different contraceptive tools, and by making the services available and affordable to people.”
Boyce says, “The Make-a-Plan kit is just part of those tools. It's not going to solve all of our problems. No, but I think it will help to raise awareness and put this issue on people's radar so they can take charge of their health now before it's too late.”
Abortion rights opponents Wisconsin Right to Life provided a statement about the pregnancy prevention kits, saying, “Wisconsin Right to Life does NOT take a position either opposed or in favor of birth control. Our mission is to protect life from fertilization to natural death.”
The statement continues: “Our concern with these kits is the same concern we have with Planned Parenthood’s mission broadly, which is the offering of abortion to women without care for the preborn children and mothers who are deserving of comprehensive care and compassion.”
