Recently, two Australian television stars shared morning-after pill stories. More specifically, the women shared similar details surrounding the struggle of obtaining the contraceptive. And in the case of The The Bachelor's Heather Maltman, she believes it even lead to her miscarriage.
Home & Away's Christie Hayes sparked the conversation with an essay on Mamamia about how she sent her husband to buy the emergency contraception. Apparently, Australian law prohibits purchasing the pill for anyone else, so the husband was denied it. Emergency contraception is more effective, the sooner you take it, preferably within 12 hours of unprotected sex or failed contraception, so Hayes was outraged that this meant she was at a greater risk of getting pregnant.
"This actually happened to me, this exact situation," Maltman said on Studio 10 Monday morning. "I was actually seeing a guy for a while and unfortunately we had a situation where I needed it and because I couldn’t go the next day, because I had work on and stuff, I asked him to go and get it for me. ... He actually couldn't pick it up, they said no to him, and because of it I took it too late and I actually ended up having a miscarriage."
It's unclear what kind of complications Maltman suffered. According to the Mayo Clinic, emergency contraception like Plan B is meant to prevent ovulation, block fertilization, or prevent fertilized egg implantation in the uterus. It is most effective immediately after intercourse, and should be taken less than 72 hours after it. Mayo Clinic says that "if you're already pregnant when you take levonorgestrel [Plan B], the treatment will simply be ineffective and won't harm the developing baby." But it also suggests that after taking the pill, if you have bleeding or spotting for more than a week or abdominal cramping, to contact a doctor. "These may be signs or symptoms of a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy — when the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, usually in a fallopian tube."
Whatever actually happened to Maltman, one thing is for certain: men should be able to buy the pill for their partners. And women shouldn't be made to feel bad for taking the pill. "It just made me feel like the worst person in the world. It made me feel like a W-H...," Maltman said.
In the United States, the morning-after pill is legally available to anyone for purchase over the counter, but a study done in 2012 (before the FDA lifted the age restriction) found that one in five men in New York were turned away by pharmacies when they attempted to purchase it.