Australia: Organized Physician Opposition to Nonprescription Status

Abstract

In the 1980s and 1990s, the international public health literature described a plethora of studies about emergency contraception (EC) and the introduction of dedicated products in different country contexts. Australia appeared to be lagging behind. Unless women were regular users of family planning services, their ability to obtain EC in a timely manner relied largely on word of mouth or “luck of the draw” in connecting with a general practitioner (GP) who knew how to use off-label oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) post-coitally. Introduction of a dedicated emergency contraceptive pill (ECP) in 2002 was immediately followed by efforts to reschedule the medication such that it would be available on a nonprescription basis. Despite opposition from two major professional medical organizations, dedicated ECPs were reclassified as a Schedule 3 drug, thus making the medication available without a prescription after consultation with a pharmacist, in 2004. The rapidity of this status switch surprised both proponents and opponents of the rescheduling efforts.