Few aware of contraception program

MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A report on a California program that for two years has give women easier access to emergency contraception said it has generated little interest.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is debating over-the-counter access to emergency contraception but California has had a program in place since January 2002. It gives women access to the emergency contraception drugs through participating pharmacies without first contacting a doctor.

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a survey this week of 1,151 California females and males, ages 15 to 44, which found only one in 10 women knew of the state program. The margin of error ranged from 3.2 percent to 6 percent.

Four in 10 women surveyed did not know emergency contraception was available at all in the United States.

Emergency contraception prevents a pregnancy from occurring -- but half of adult women who had heard of it mistakenly thought it was the "abortion pill" or RU-486, which is used to terminate a pregnancy.