Pharmacies in Malta should stop refusing to stock and sell emergency contraception, Labour MP Rosianne Cutajar has argued.

“Access to contraception is a basic right for everyone, including for women,” Cutajar said in a Facebook post. “This is a health issue and it’s disappointing that this still isn’t the case because of prejudices about women’s sexual lives.”

https://www.facebook.com/rosiannecutajar/photos/a.593253470749201/2994834540591070/?type=3&theater

Emergency contraception was made available over the counter back in 2016, but some pharmacists still refuse to stock it over moral concerns that it is abortive. A phonecall exercise by Illum last Sunday found that around 70% of pharmacies stock it and 30% don’t.

And although the majority of pharmacies stock the morning after pill, some women have warned the experience of acquiring it has left them feeling judged and uncomfortable.

Pharmacists have been known to ask customers personal questions, sometimes even in front of other customers, before selling them the pill.

A young woman told Lovin Malta that a pharmacist had led her into a room and started reading out a set of questions before going off track.

“She asked me why I made the same mistake twice, why I wasn’t careful, and told me that I should go on birth control,” she said. “She told me I was lucky I was above 18, otherwise she would have had to call my parents.”

The Chamber of Pharmacists has introduced a set of guidelines on how pharmacists should dispense emergency contraception but has so far refused to publish them, arguing that they are professional tools that are only intended for the use of pharmacists.

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