Let women have the pill whenever needed

Sometimes factors force the government to reverse its policies. Among them are negative public responses, lobbying from interest groups, changed social environment or initial mistakes, or any combination of these in varying degrees. One can’t help but wonder what is behind the government’s latest about-face on two major types of contraceptive.

Starting in July, morning-after pills will become available without prescription, while birth control pills will require a visit to the doctor. The opposite has been true here for nearly 50 years.

The Korea Food and Drug Association has its own reasons for the u-turn. To sum up, it said birth control pills have more serious associated health risks, including thrombosis, than previously thought, mainly because they need to be taken over a long period of time, while morning-after pills are taken once and have few side effects. The officials also cited global trends and cost-saving factors.

All these are plausible reasons. The only question is has the government agency only learned about them now?

As we see it, the government encouraged free use of oral contraceptive drugs in the past as part of its family planning restrictions. But today’s changed demography, chiefly the rock-bottom birthrate, has reversed the situation, eliminating the need to maintain the policy.

In short, the KFDA has followed in the footsteps of most advanced countries, rightly if belatedly, as Korea is no longer a developing country worried about overpopulation.

Predictably, the decision on morning-after pills triggered fierce protests from various groups, especially medical and religious communities. They cite health risks accompanying the frequent use of morning-after pills as well as foreign statistics that show it has failed to sharply lower abortion rates. Again, however, we know doctors are more concerned about reduced medical bills, and priests with loose sexual morality.

The time has long past for commercial and religious interests to meddle in what should completely be a matter of individual choice, including even side effects caused by the abuse and misuse of medicines. The government’s role should be to provide proper guidance to people with different physical traits to minimize health hazards. Such guidance is especially important for young women, including teenagers, which explains why even the United States is moving to restrict access to morning-after pills for girls under 17. The question in advanced countries is no longer whether to allow access or not, but how low the age limit should be.

The freer acquisition of contraceptives is more important in Korea, where women’s say in sex ― having sexual relations and deciding on abortion ― is particularly weak. Nothing inflicts grater harm on a woman’s health, or life itself, than unwanted pregnancy, illustrated most pertinently by the nation’s disgraceful nickname of ``baby exporter,” as most unmarried mothers cannot or would not raise their children.

It would be ideal for the government to reverse the decision on birth control pills, too, now that women are more aware of the negative side effects.

In an extremely macho society like Korea where men hold sway in almost all areas, women should at least be able to decide what to do with their own bodies and their own lives.