It's got the same name in every language. The pill you need the morning after. I will not even get into the details of why or who I am buying this pill for.
I get to the pharmacy and immediately learn that being almost 42 does not prevent you from feeling quite self conscious when asking for the morning-after pill. Even the detachment of saying it in Croatian (using impeccable accusative case, mind you!) doesn't help. Let alone at the judgmental stare that the chemist offers me. She says they don't have it. I ask if I can order it. She says I should try another pharmacy. It is raining and quite cold for October. This woman, I know it in my bones, is refusing to sell me the pill.
My awesome wing-woman almost gets me killed by jaywalking to cross to another ljekarna. But we get there in one piece, and I ask for the pill again. I am told that I can buy it, but I need to answer a few questions in a form first. More than 10, including my year of birth. Only one is related to health issues such as allergies.
When the form is done, and handed in, I am asked for my name and surname, and that of my gynecologist. I lie not. The pill is 190 kuna. 25.5 euro.
In Zagreb, a qualified intern works 10.5 hours to make this amount. A mid-range meal for two is 190 kuna. Three bottles of good wine in the market. The monthly pass for the tram when you're a student. With 190 kunas, you can treat 5 people to McDonald's and get some change.
So I got to thinking about what I've always thought to be the average woman in need of this "emergency contraceptive", as the box describes it in Croatian. Hitna kontracepcija. My guess is that in average she is young and really wants to avoid both a pregnancy and an abortion. Her condom may have broken. She may have had unprotected sex. She could have been raped. She may be regretting a sexual encounter. She wants and needs that pill, and all she gets is judgement, obstacles and a freaking high price tag.
I cannot think of a more fucked-up way of designing a system in order to to tell someone "I told you so", while waving a nagging finger at them, rejoicing that you have not helped avoid what I can only think of as disaster.
