Free emergency contraception kits are now available through the City of St. Louis Department of Health.
The department joins 60 other organizations taking part in the Missouri Family Health Council’s “Free EC” initiative. The goal is to provide access to emergency contraception and reproductive health resources. Suzanne Alexander, the department’s Communicable Disease Bureau Chief, said this option will benefit many in the city.
“It is their choice to be sex positive, [and] to make reproductive choices that fit them and their particular needs,” Alexander said. “We hope to always be here for them and provide the resources that they need.”
Each kit includes two doses of the emergency contraception medication, levonorgestrel, as well condoms, resources to health providers, and a brochure called “Get Yourself Tested.”
“Along with reproductive health, we also are invested in ensuring that residents in St. Louis have good sexual health, and are testing themselves as needed for STI’s, HIV, and Hepatitis,” Alexander said.
In June, the council launched the initiative with a goal of distributing roughly 5,000 kits. Since then, they’ve passed out more than 15,000. Michelle Trupiano, the executive director of the council, attributes that to more people being in tune with what’s happening with their reproductive rights in the current political landscape.
“I think that is part of why it has been so successful and we’ve seen such a great response to it,” Trupiano said. “It’s that people are really scared and they’re concerned about their future. And so they’re just looking at all sorts of preventative options.”
The initiative stemmed from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. The move led to Missouri having one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.
“We know that this isn’t a solution for the access to abortion crisis that we face in Missouri,” Trupiano said. “But it is just one more tool that folks may have in terms of envisioning the future that they desire.”
The medication is not to be confused with a medical abortion.
“Emergency contraception is just that,” Trupiano said. “It is contraception and it prevents a pregnancy even though it can be taken after intercourse. A medication abortion of course terminates a pregnancy and is currently illegal in the state of Missouri.”
Alexander hopes this initiative will lessen the systemic barriers many face getting access to free reproductive care.
“Our residents have historically had challenges accessing free or affordable reproductive healthcare,” Alexander said. “And that means whatever their decision is whenever they want to have their family and whatever choices they make about having a family they’re impacted by low income, by a lack of economic opportunity.”
Kits can be picked up at the health department’s communicable disease bureau.
Health centers including the Planned Parenthood of St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri locations in St. Louis and Rolla are also participating. In addition, kits can also be ordered online.
