SC Emergency Contraception InitiativeEducating and empowering women in South Carolina by increasing awareness of and access to emergency birth control
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Dealing with the morning after
Old Gold & Black (Wofford College Paper, SC)
March, 2007

This article highlights the work of the South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative.

In an effort to promote this new availability, the South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative has launched an effort aimed at awareness and education.

“The initiative is designed to help young women prevent unintended pregnancy by educating them and others in the community and improving access to emergency birth control,” says a press release from New Morning Foundation and Advocates for Youth, partnerships of the initiative.

The Initiative emphasizes that, as a higher dose of birth control medication, the morning-after pill does not cause an abortion nor does it harm an existing pregnancy, but rather can inhibit fertilization or prevent implantation, an emphasis with which it hopes to avoid much of the politics that have surrounded past discussions about the pill.

This article is no longer available online.


Initiative uses pill to thwart teen pregnancies
The Catalyst (Medical University of South Carolina)
March 2, 2007

This article features the South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative.

The South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative is a multi-year commitment to create public awareness, initially targeting the greater metropolitan Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg and Charleston markets.

“By developing a broad-based statewide coalition of informed health care providers, advocates and consumers, we hope to significantly decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies among young women under age 25 over the next few years,” said Bonnie Adams, executive director of New Morning Foundation.

The South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative, a partnership of New Morning Foundation, a grant-making organization headquartered in Columbia, and Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based teen health policy group, seeks to educate young women about the availability of Plan B.

To read the full article, please visit: http://www.musc.edu/catalyst/archive/2007/co3-2pill.html


Plan B easier to swallow
George Street Observer (College of Charleston SC)
February 2, 2007

This article talks about the FDA decision to make emergency contraception available for people age 18 or older without a prescription. Bonnie Adams talks about the South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative which is a partner collaboration between Advocates for Youth and the New Morning Foundation.

“Since the FDA's decision, organizations such as the South Carolina Emergency Contraceptive Initiative have been campaigning to promote and educate young women about the use and availability of Plan B. The Initiative, which is a partnership of New Morning Foundation, was founded five years ago to help prevent unplanned pregnancies. As a South Carolina-only focus group, the Initiative seeks to target young women between the ages of 16 and 25, focusing more however on the Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg and Charleston markets.

Because there are so many females who are unaware of the pill and its effects, the Initiative works with health care providers and OBGYNs to inform young women and increase public awareness of the use of Plan B, commonly called "the morning-after pill."

Bonnie Adams, Executive Director of New Morning Foundation, said there has been a great deal of confusion between the morning-after pill and the abortion pill, RU-486. "Our campaign is totally focused on the progestin product, Plan B, that the FDA just approved in August, which is not an abortion pill and cannot cause an abortion," Adams said.”

To read the full article, please visit: http://media.www.georgestreetobserver.com/media/storage/paper908/news/2007/02/08/News/Plan-B.Easier.To.Swallow-2705133-page2.shtml


Emergency contraceptive hard to find, advocates say
Over-the-counter drug entangled in controversy
Greenville News
December 20, 2006

The Greenville News examined access to emergency contraceptive pills in South Carolina, which are now available over the counter without a prescription for people 18 and older.

The South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative, a partnership between the New Morning Foundation and Advocates for Youth, has launched a campaign to educate young women about the availability of the drug.

"A lot of pharmacists, a lot of consumers, and frankly, a lot of health providers, are not clear about this," said Bonnie K. Adams, executive director of New Morning, a privately funded foundation which awards grants to projects focusing on young people's reproductive health in South Carolina.

"But a woman needs to be able to get her birth control pills and her emergency contraceptives," she said.

The campaign is initially targeting Greenville, Spartanburg, Columbia and Charleston, said Lottie McClorin, program manager for the Initiative. It will provide information to young women 16 to 24 via the Internet, youth programs, the sexual assault community and doctors' offices.

This article is no longer available online.


Access to emergency contraception might curb teen pregnancies, advocacy groups say
The Spartanburg Herald
December 20, 2006

The Spartanburg Herald reported on issues around young women’s access to emergency contraception.

It's there and available, but most -- 60 percent of women ages 16 to 24 -- don't know about it, according to the South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative.

The South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative, a project of New Morning Foundation in Columbia and Advocates for Youth in Washington, DC, on the other hand, aims to educate consumers and health care providers that emergency contraception is safe and effective.

"It's just a matter of getting that demand out there and kind of pushing people and empowering people to go into the pharmacies and ask," said Lottie McClorin, the initiative's program manager.

To read this article, please visit: http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061220/NEWS/612200325&


PLAN B, now available without a prescription, may offer unplanned pregnancy protection
Post & Courier (South Carolina)
November 27, 2006

The Post & Courier addresses the issue of emergency contraception, and the FDA’s approval of making the drug available without a prescription for anyone age 18 or over.

The South Carolina Emergency Contraception Initiative's leaders are banking on technology to get the word out. They plan to distribute a DVD involving young women and health professionals discussing the facts about emergency contraception, as well as create a home for information about the drug on the Internet. Young women in focus groups for the S.C. Emergency Contraception Initiative reported that if they needed the pill, they might go to their mothers or a physician for help, but that they'd always head to the Internet for information first.

To read the abstract of the article, please visit:
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/charleston/access/1174469631.html

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