Assembly Bill 343, which prohibits the distribution of emergency contraceptive prescriptions from any UW System University Health Services center was passed in the Wisconsin state Assembly in June and now waits to be voted on in the state Senate.
State Rep. Dan LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, drafted the bill in response to a series of controversial UHS spring break advertisements that ran in the UW-Madison student newspapers. Supporters of the bill said one ad encouraged irresponsible behavior of students by promoting the idea of getting emergency contraception before going on vacation.
'The idea [for the advertisement was] if you were a woman relying particularly on a barrier form of contraceptives, like a condom, which have a little bit higher failure rate than other contraceptives, and were someplace strange on spring break ?? people may want to get a prescription ahead of time,' UHS Director Kathy Poi said.
UW-Madison students can receive a prescription for Plan B from UHS by appointment specifically for the drug, when seen for an issue that prompts discussion of the drug or by talking to a physician over the phone.
'It would be inappropriate if a student falls on a winter day and then the UHS says 'here you go' and hands over a prescription pain medication that could be filled at Walgreens and no one would examine them,' said state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend. 'It shouldn't be like this for emergency contraceptives.'
Plan B is being reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for over-the-counter use, a practice already in use in Canada and Europe, but UW-Madison still follows the proper procedure to administer a Plan B prescription, Poi said.
'Because E.C. is a prescription medication, a student will be talking to one of our practitioner nurses or one of our physicians and their information from the time of prescription will be entered into their medical records, just like we would penicillin for a strep throat,' Poi said.
Assembly Bill 343 would prevent emergency contraception prescriptions at medical centers within the UW System's boundaries and does not affect outside clinics, like Planned Parenthood, or hospitals.
Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Field Director Tanya Atkinson said the bill's definition of emergency contraception is broad and may be read to include all birth control. But Grothman said the bill only applies to emergency contraceptives because it addresses contraceptives 'administered only after sexual intercourse for the postcoital control of fertility to a registered student or to any other person entitled to receive university health care services.'
'Health care and contraception services outside of a UHS are not located in every Wisconsin university town. The issue is that this is basic health care,' Atkinson said. 'It's about making sure students have a health care and contraceptive provider because they are paying for it with their tuition.'
