Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About...
How to Get Emergency Contraception
Do I need a prescription to get emergency contraceptive pills?
In the United States, the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B is approved for sale without
prescription to women and men 18 and older. Be prepared to show identification to prove your age.
Women 17 and younger still need to get a prescription from a licensed health care provider in order to get emergency contraceptive pills (also known as "morning after pills" or "day after pills"). While some providers – like Planned Parenthood clinics – may have emergency contraception on hand and can give you the pills directly, you will often also need to visit a pharmacy to fill the prescription just like you do with other medications.
Laws in some
states also allow pharmacists to provide emergency
contraceptive pills directly to women 17 and under without requiring a doctor's prescription (although not every pharmacist is doing it). For more information about getting emergency contraceptive pills if you are under 18, click here.
To read more about the United States Food and Drug Administration’s
decision to allow over the counter sales of Plan
B to women and men 18 and older, click
here. To learn more about the contentious history of Plan B and the Bush Administration, click here. Dozens of leading medical and
public health organizations in the United States support this
move, and emergency
contraceptive pills are already available without a prescription
in more than 35 other countries around the world.
To find the nearest licensed health care providers, including pharmacists,
providing emergency contraception in the US, try searching our database.
For a more detailed academic review of the medical and social science
literature about improving women’s access to emergency contraception,
click here 
.