lowing unprotected intercourse and emergency contraceptive pills provided in advance. The results showed that in a managed care setting, a single treatment of emergency contraception after unprotected intercourse saves $142 with emergency contraceptive pills and $119 with minipills. The copper intrauterine device is not cost-effective as an emergency contraceptive alone, but savings quickly result as use continues. Advance provisions of emergency contraceptive pills to women using barrier contraceptives, spermicides, withdrawal, or periodic abstinence saves from $263 to $498 annually. In conclusion, emergency contraception is cost-effective whether provided when the emergency arises or in advance to be used as needed. Greater use of emergency contraception could reduce the considerable medical and social costs of unintended pregnancies (Trussell, Koenig, and Ellertson, 1997).The most important step in assisting women in preventing unintended pregnancy is in educating health care providers about emergency contraceptives so that all patients have access to this method (Morgan and Deneris, 1997). A survey performed in 1993 indicated the need for more awareness. Two Hundred Ninety Four reproductive health care providers, family practitioners, and emergency department physicians were surveyed to determine how often they provided emergency contraception in the preceding year. The results suggested that the respondents prescribed emergency contraception an average of 3.4 times in the preceding year with one third of those prescribed for victims of sexual assault. Ninety percent of the respondents never or rarely spoke to their patients about emergency contraception and only 10% had literature available for patients about the method (Klima, 1998). Clearly there was a need for health care providers to be more informative. In 1996 the Reproductive Health Technologies Project and Bridging the Gap Communications began their own educatio...
