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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the morning after pill should be free?

93 replies

angelos02 · 23/03/2015 10:09

Had to get this yesterday. £25! If I had a child this would cost the country hundreds of thousands of pounds in education and health care. Seems a bit daft to charge for a pill?

OP posts:
ahbollocks · 23/03/2015 10:10

I think it is in wales

Gileswithachainsaw · 23/03/2015 10:12

Then there would be no incentive for people to buy condoms if they could get the MAP free.

Vitamints · 23/03/2015 10:12

You can get it free if you get it from a sexual health clinic.

passthewineplz · 23/03/2015 10:13

You only have to pay if you buy it from a chemist. It's free from GP's and family planning. But agree £25 is ridiculous - bet it puts some women off buying it

RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime · 23/03/2015 10:13

You can get it on prescription, can't you? Which means that it would be free, here in Scotland.

Only a complete idiot would use the MAP instead of a condom every time they had sex, even if they could just lift it for free off the shelves at Tesco. It's a big dose of hormones.

KatieKaye · 23/03/2015 10:14

We do not pay for prescriptions in Scotland

TheHoundsBitch · 23/03/2015 10:15

It is, on prescription.

Notmymnname · 23/03/2015 10:15

It is free on prescription
Condoms are also free on the NHS

Original poster
angelos02 · 23/03/2015 10:16

By the time I'd get a doctor's appointment, the pill wouldn't work. It is the first time I've ever had to get it - it isn't a regular thing.

OP posts:
AGirlCalledBoB · 23/03/2015 10:16

No I don't think it should be free.

Contraception is free from the doctors so generally if you are having to use the morning after pill it is because you have not used contraception or it has gone wrong.

The morning after pill being free may encourage people to go to it straight away when other forms of contraception should be used first. The morning after pill should be emergency once in a while use.

At any rate I think some sexual health clinics do give it free.

PickleSarnie · 23/03/2015 10:17

You can get it free from clinics. I'm sure that the NHS has no desire to have it relied on as a default contraception - it doesn't protect from STIs and it isn't as reliable as condoms, pill, coil etc

SabrinaTheTeenageWitch · 23/03/2015 10:17

It's definitely free in Scotland

RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime · 23/03/2015 10:18

Anyway, contraceptive pills are free. So no, it wouldn't mean there was no incentive to buy condoms.

Gileswithachainsaw · 23/03/2015 10:19

Only a complete idiot would use the MAP instead of a condom every time they had sex, even if they could just lift it for free off the shelves at Tesco. It's a big dose of hormones

Yes there are plenty of idiots having sex.

and being an idiot doesn't mean your a shop lifter and prepared to steal condoms.

oh and the attitude of some staff in some family planning clinics, well people provably would take their chances over being spoken to like that.

sparechange · 23/03/2015 10:19

You are paying for the 'convenience' of not going to the doctor to get it, I think...

Is there not a walk in centre near you which opens at weekends? They'd have been able to prescribe it so you got it free of charge

AGirlCalledBoB · 23/03/2015 10:19

Just looked it up, it's free from the GP or family planning clinic but if you want it from the pharmacist then you pay the £25.

kewtogetin · 23/03/2015 10:19

You can get it free from any pharmacy displaying the 'two tablets' sign. I'm not in Scotland.

UghReally · 23/03/2015 10:19

I think it should be free. a young girl I know personally got pregnant because she was unable to get the pill (She didn't know sexual health clinics and GP gave them out for free and couldn't afford the £30 charge). Although we do need to educate our young people about whats out there and how to get it I think charging someone for the MAP is ridiculous on all levels. I don't know anyone who'd use it as regular contraception anyway.

madreloco · 23/03/2015 10:20

Why do british people think everything should be free? Fairly low rates of tax in comparison to most of Europe, yet expect it to stretch to every thing? It's weird.

RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime · 23/03/2015 10:20

I would be able to get it from my GP at the daily open surgery - appointment-free time for urgent problems. I don't think every practice has this, but they should!

RubbishRobotFromTheDawnOfTime · 23/03/2015 10:22

Well madreloco £25 is a lot less than the costs the NHS/state would bear from a continuing unwanted pregnancy.

HelpMeGetOutOfHere · 23/03/2015 10:22

I thought it was free to under 18's or maybe even under 21's?

Original poster
angelos02 · 23/03/2015 10:23

I don't expect everything to be free madreloco. Just seems daft to charge £25 for a single pill when if I'd gone through with the pregnancy it would cost £100,000's of pounds to the tax payer.

OP posts:
AGirlCalledBoB · 23/03/2015 10:23

HelpMeGetOutOfHere

I think it is under 21s get it free.

splodgeses · 23/03/2015 10:31

I don't think it should be free. Or compared to the cost of the state funding a continued, unwanted pregnancy.

On so many threads about CM, fathers and men are flamed for not taking precautions ie contraception, every time they have sex because of the chance of pregnancy, and the lifelong responsibility of supporting a child.

It has even been said that they should never have sex if they they want zero risk of becoming a father.

Surely the same standard should be applied to a woman? If you are unable to support a family or want zero risk of having a child, don't have sex.

To be truthful, that isn't how I would see it, but it annoys me that men get the responsibilty that women don't when it comes to sex and babies.