Empowering women by preventing unwanted pregnancies

Emergency (post-coital) contraception is a useful intervention to reduce unplanned pregnancies in women of all ages. In Australia, two methods of emergency contraception are commonly used: the combined oral contraception pill and the intra-uterine contraceptive device. Additional regimes are used in other countries. A description of the regimes and political and moral issues related to them are described in this paper as is the relevance and significance of knowledge about emergency contraception for nurses working with women in a variety of health care settings.