Many Pharmacies Are Giving Teens Crap Info About Plan B

According to a new study, America’s teens are getting crap information about Plan B from one source they really should be able to trust to know their stuff: pharmacies.

An L.A. pediatrician noticed her teenaged patients commonly had misconceptions about emergency contraception, ThinkProgress reports. So she had women call almost a thousand pharmacies, claiming to be 17-year-olds. (This was before the age restrictions were removed.) According to results published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, it didn’t go so well:

“About 20 percent of the pharmacy staff said that, because the callers identified themselves as teens, the callers couldn’t get it at all. That’s completely incorrect,” Wilkinson explained to Health Behavior News Service. “Of the remaining 80 percent of respondents, about half of them got the exact age requirement correct and half of them did not.”

Some said they didn’t stock Plan B for religious reasons. Others gave information that was just plain wrong, like they had to be accompanied by a parent or their parents had to be informed.This on top of the fact that emergency contraception is already confusing—all brands but Plan B require a prescription for those under 17, for instance.

Given that it’s excruciating for many teens to ask for so much directions to the tampon aisle, the very least pharmacies could do is answer their questions with accurate information.