THE morning after pill will be available over the counter from Monday, the ministry of health has revealed.
This move is aimed at cutting down on teenage pregnancies, given that over 10,600 girls under 18 fell pregnant in 2007 and 6,273 had an abortion.
Minister of health Trinidad Jiménez says around 500 of these involved girls under 15.
She warns that this pill should not be used as a regular method of contraception, but only as an emergency measure following unprotected sex or where other forms of birth control have failed.
Full information will be given to anyone seeking the pill in her local chemist.
It is effective if taken within 72 hours of having sexual relations.
Spain now joins other countries, including the UK, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece and Portugal by allowing women to buy the morning after pill without a prescription.
