Myanmar police ban birth control to 'cut sex crime'

YANGON, Myanmar

Police in Myanmar have ordered the removal of contraceptive pills and condoms from pharmacy shelves in a “special project” designed to reduce sex crime during the New Year water festival, local media reported on Saturday.

The Myanmar Times cited pharmacists as saying it is the strongest crackdown on the sale of birth control in at least a decade.

Last month, police in Yangon, the country’s largest city, announced they would arrest shop-owners found to be selling emergency contraceptives, birth control pills or medicines for erectile dysfunction.

Officers have been forcing pharmacy owners to sign pledges not to sell the medicines before or during the five-day Thingyan festival, including products registered with the Food and Drug Administration, the Times reported.

The newspaper added that in some areas of Yangon, pharmacies have claimed that police have told them to stop selling condoms.

Police Lt. Thi Thi Myint said: “On March 23 we started arresting shop owners who are selling the drug we have prohibited.”

A pharmacy owner in Yangon, who asked not to be named, told the Times that police had told him he faced arrest if he sold any contraceptive products, including officially registered drugs.

“I sold registered erectile dysfunction drugs and birth control pills before they started the Thingyan project,” he said.

He added: “When police called us to a meeting about Thingyan festival they didn’t say which brands were banned and didn’t announce anything legally. It’s just verbal instructions.”

Dr Thiha Thit, the owner of a private medical clinic in Yangon, said the police action was misguided.

“Erectile dysfunction medicine does not encourage anyone to commit a sex crime,” he said. “Police should stop stores from selling date rape drugs instead. If police stop the sale of emergency birth control pills it will simply cause more social problems.”