California Steps Up

More than 50 California state advocacy groups and health care providers are convening to launch California's first Emergency Contraception Network aimed at curbing the unintended pregnancy rate, the Pharmacy Access Partnership announced July 5. The nonprofit group in Oakland, Calif., promotes access to reproductive health services and emergency contraception.

An estimated 50 percent of pregnancies in California are unplanned, according to a recent study from the University of California-San Francisco. More than 100,000 California teens get pregnant every year, the seventh highest rate in the country.

"Addressing emergency contraception as a united front in California will allow women to see emergency contraception as a safe prevention of unintended pregnancy," says Ingrid Dries-Daffner, the network coordinator.

In 2000, California passed a law allowing pharmacists to prescribe and distribute emergency contraception, called Plan B. Only eight states allow this over-the-counter exchange.