Emergency prevention available Firm offers birth control without prescription

BAR HARBOR – The West End Drug Co. is one of the few pharmacies in the state to provide emergency contraception to its customers without a doctor’s prescription, and co-owner Michael Gilfillan said that the new service will be a boon to area women living in remote, rural places.

“We’ve been having women come to us … from quite a few miles away,” he said. “One woman came from about 75 miles away or so on a weekend.”

Plan B, the trade name of the primary emergency contraception dispensed at West End Drug, works by temporarily stopping ovulation. It will not cause an abortion or harm a developing fetus, according to officials at the Family Planning Association of Maine or FPAM.

When emergency contraception is required, time is of the essence, officials said. Women should take the contraceptive within three days of having unprotected sex, but it may work up to five days after an encounter. This is one reason obtaining Plan B at a neighborhood pharmacy might be more convenient than getting it from a doctor’s office on a holiday weekend, for example.

“It’s a medication where time is everything,” FPAM spokesperson Sue McPhee said Thursday. “Too many people don’t know about emergency contraception. Hopefully, we can get the word out.”

Pharmacies in Rumford and Kennebunk also provide emergency contraception, though there is no official tally of all collaborating pharmacies yet, McPhee said.

Shoppers milled around the counter of the old-fashioned Rexall drugstore Thursday morning as clerks rang up their purchases of postcards, sunscreen and Ace bandages.

The hustle and bustle of a busy spring day in the tourist town could not hide the discreet sign hung on the wall stating the pharmacy offers the emergency contraception service.

Gilfillan said that since April, when he was certified by the Maine Board of Pharmacy to provide the service, he has dispensed Plan B, an emergency contraceptive medication, to about half a dozen women.

“This really helps the rural women in Maine,” FPAM official Cheryl Daggett said Wednesday. “They could be a victim of sexual assault or domestic violence. They forgot to take their birth control pills or are taking medication that makes birth control less effective.”

In order to be certified as an emergency contraceptive provider, a pharmacist must complete training, take a test and find a health care provider such as a doctor, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant or midwife who will sign a collaborative agreement.

Mary Dudzik is Gilfillan’s collaborating physician, and she sounded enthusiastic Thursday about the new service he is providing.

“When Mike sees people, he does really a pretty decent medical screening,” Dudzik said. “He asks if it’s related to assault, provides a pill pack for the contraception and sends a sheet to me to let me know that he has done this.”

Gilfillan also encourages patients to follow up with Dudzik or with another health care provider. That is all part of what he considers to be the pharmacist’s job description.

“We are the health care professional that more people see than any other,” he said. “We’re just more accessible.”