For Providers and Pharmacists

The Back Up Your Birth Control campaign aims to educate women about emergency contraception (EC) – and put it into their hands before a crisis occurs.

You are a critical link between EC and the women who need it. Women look to you for information and advice about this back-up birth control method. And they turn to you if they need EC.

Here are a few things you can do to help:

Doctors and other health care providers...

  • Talk to your colleagues about EC.
  • Talk to your patients about EC.
  • Buy a supply of EC and offer to sell it at cost to your female patients of reproductive age.
  • Send letters to your local pharmacies encouraging them to stock EC – and letting them know you provide it.

Pharmacists…

  • Make sure you have EC in stock.
  • Talk to your colleagues about EC.
  • Learn more about EC through an on-line EC training program.
  • When women get prescriptions for birth control pills that can also be used as EC, be sure to include information on their back-up options.
  • Find out about pharmacy access to EC in your state.

Click here for more ideas to Take Action

Find out more about EC being provided by pharmacists. You can also check out your own professional association’s website for EC materials. And encourage them to become co-sponsors of the campaign, if they haven’t already.

For specific questions about the campaign, e-mail campaign director Amy Boldosser.



The Back Up Your Birth Control Campaign unites more than 100 national and local medical organizations and women’s health advocacy groups to increase awareness of and improve access to emergency contraception. This campaign is coordinated by the National Institute for Reproductive Health, the national research, education and training arm of NARAL Pro-Choice New York.