Established in 2012, the European Consortium for Emergency Contraception (ECEC) is a network of Europe-based organizations and individuals working in the field of emergency contraception (EC) research, service provision, and advocacy within a broader sexual and reproductive health and rights approach.
In 2011, a number of experts and organizations came together with the aim of addressing the unequal access to EC across the European region and the absence of a harmonized evidence-based approach to EC policies. Consequently, ECEC was established and officially launched in Athens in June 2012, within the framework of the 12th Congress of the European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health.
Through a moderated online forum, ECEC brings together and facilitates a dialogue among more than 450 experts in the region. ECEC wants to serve as an authoritative source of information and a voice for more equitable access to EC in Europe.
ECEC has two main governing bodies: a Board and an Advisory Committee. Advisory Committee members played a key role in envisioning and founding ECEC. They provided strategic guidance to ECEC during its take-off phase and they continue to provide advice and guidance on strategic issues.
Advisory Committee Members
Kristina Gemzell Danielsson, MD, PhD is professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a senior consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Karolinska University Hospital where she also serves as Director for the World Health Organization collaborating centre for Research and Research Training in Human Reproduction. Her research includes a focus on emergency contraception, development of safe abortion methods and development of new contraceptive methods. Dr. Gemzell Danielsson has been President of the International Federation of Professional Abortion and Contraception Associates and Vice-President of the European Society for Contraception.
Anna Glasier, OB-GYN is an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and at the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She advises a number of international organisations, including the World Health Organisation, where she was the Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, and the Population Council. Dr. Glasier was previously the Director of Family Planning and Well-woman Services for National Health Service in Lothian, Edinburgh. She is a world expert on emergency contraception and her work was instrumental in emergency contraception’s deregulation in the United Kingdom and beyond. She currently consults for HRA Pharma.
Caroline Moreau, MD, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population, Family Planning and Reproductive Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Senior Researcher at Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in France. Dr. Moreau has led a number of sexual and reproductive health research projects at institutions such as Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University. At INSERM, she worked as the Co-Principal Investigator of the 2010 national survey on sexual and reproductive health in France. Her other experiences and professional memberships include the European Union project on “The State of Reproductive Health and Fertility in the European Union,” the Society for Family Planning, the European Society for Contraception and the International Federation of Professional Abortion and Contraception Associates.
Board Members
Esther Spinatsch is a Swiss pharmacist who graduated from the University of Geneva. She has worked in the Pharmaceutical Care Research Group at the University of Basel for many years, particularly in pharmacy services. She is also a member of the Interdisciplinary Expert Group on Emergency Contraception (IENK), where she supports developing and updating emergency contraception(EC) dispensing protocols and guidelines in Swiss pharmacies. In addition to her research activities, Esther teaches EC at the University of Basel and Bern and does training for pharmacists; she also works in a 24-hour emergency pharmacy, where she has gained extensive practical experience in EC dispensing. Esther joined the ECEC Board in June 2024.
Clare Murphy worked as a health correspondent for the BBC in London, and later on at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) for over 13 years: first as director of External Affairs, where she campaigned for the services and legal frameworks women need across their reproductive lifetimes to exercise genuine choice around pregnancy, and until 2024 as BPAS Chief Executive. She has an absolute commitment to improving both the perception and availability of emergency contraception in Europe, which she believes remains a significantly underused product with barriers – including stigma, unwanted interactions with healthcare professionals, and high prices – repeatedly placed in women’s way. Clare was part of an innovative campaign that succeeded in achieving a significant decrease of EC pills prices in the UK, and making EC onto the open shelves of UK pharmacies is on her bucket list. Clare joined ECEC’s board in February 2017.
Prof. Gunta Lazdāne, is Professor at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Riga Stradins University, and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Public Health. Originally from Latvia, she spent many years working at the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization. Aside from her extensive knowledge as ObGyn professor, she has a unique insight on European health policy making, and has a deep knowledge of the region’s diversity, and its challenges and opportunities to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights. Prof. Gunta Lazdāne joined ECEC’s board in October 2022.
Dr. Nathalie Kapp, is currently the Chief Medical Advisor for IPPF and an obstetrician-gynecologist specializing in reproductive health. Nathalie completed a Complex Family Planning and Clinical Research Fellowship from Boston University, where she also obtained her Master’s in Public Health in Biostatistics. Nathalie has worked on emergency contraception since 2006 and developed a unique view of the field, given her years of experience in the Reproductive Health and Research program of the World Health Organization, the pharmaceutical industry and the NGO sector. In 2009, Nathalie joined the Technical Advisory group of the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception. In 2014, she was part of the expert team lead by HRA that switched UPA ECPs to over-the-counter status in the European Union (one of the biggest breaks throughs in the history of EC in the world). She joined ECEC’s board in February 2022.
Past Board and Advisory Committee Members
Adriana Pereira, MPH, started volunteering in 2010 in a youth-driven NGO promoting sexual health. She eventually became a board member and got to learn more about the NGOs. During her master’s in Public Health, she did an internship at the European Regional Office of WHO, working on Gender and Health. From 2018 till 2021 Ms. Pereira coordinated YouAct, the European Youth Network on Sexual and Reproductive Rights. She also served as a member of the Expert Group of the Contraception Atlas (European Parliamentary Forum for Population and Development). Adriana has worked intensively to advocate for sexual and reproductive health services that reflect youth’s needs, and has served ECEC’s Board from May 2019 until June 2024.
Dr. Teresa Alexandra Bombas, OB-GYN has an expertise that includes contraception, pregnancy and family planning in adolescence. She serves the Obstetrics Unit of Maternidade Daniel de Matos Hospitais da Universidade de Coimbra in Portugal. She is also responsible for the Abortion Outpatient Clinic at the Hospital de Santo André in Leiria. Since 2010, Dr. Bombas has served as secretary of the Portuguese Society of Contraception and as a member of the Expert Group on Abortion. She also has chaired FIGO’s Committee on Safe Abortion, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health. She earned a Master’s degree in Sexual and Reproductive Health at Fundación Española de Contracepción & Universidad de Alcála de Henares in Madrid. Teresa served ECEC’s Board from 2012 until February 2023.
Christian Fiala, MD, PhD has been highly engaged in reproductive health for more than 20 years, with a specific focus on the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. Dr. Fiala was involved in helping to make LNG EC available over the counter in Austria, and in making EC an integral part of the first aid kit at home and while traveling. In 2007, he opened the first and only Museum of Contraception and Abortion, located in Vienna. He has organized several international conferences for health professionals on abortion and contraception, has given over 200 presentations at national and international conferences since 1999 on various aspects of contraception and abortion, and has authored numerous publications in both English and German exploring these topics. Dr. Fiala received both his MD and PhD, which focused on improving medical abortion, at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm. He served ECEC’s Board from 2012 until September 2022.
Ardian Paravani was involved for many years in the field of contraceptive social marketing through the NGO NESMARK in Albania. Adrian is an expert on EC distribution, market research, and the provision of reproductive health information for the public and private health sectors. He served ECEC’s Board from 2012 until 2017.
Emilio Arisi, Ob-Gyn was the president and founder of the Italian Medical Society for Contraception (SMIC), and an elected board member of the European Society of Contraception for the years 2012-2016. Dr. Arisi was had also been the national president of the Italian branch of International Planned Parenthood Federation (1994-2005)s. He played an important role in the switch of EC pills to non-prescription in Italy, in 2015. He served ECEC Board from 2012 until 2019.
Sharon Cameron MD, FRCOG, MFSRH is Consultant Gynaecologist and part-time senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Her on-going research interests include emergency contraception, contraception, medical abortion and chlamydia. Dr. Cameron served as a scientific adviser to the World Health Organization on medical abortion. She served ECEC Advisory Committee from 2011 until 2019.
Medard M. Lech, MD, Ph.D, FPCOG, DPH is the Director of the Fertility and Sterility Research Centre in Warsaw, Poland. Dr. Lech is a very active member of the European Society of Contraception and Reproductive Health (ESC), having served as editor of the Society’s Journal; as a member of the Board of Directors, Executive Committee and Treasurer, as well as a member of the Scientific and Organising Committees of a number of ESC Congresses. Dr. Lech served ECEC Board from 2012 until early 2020.
At its inception, ECEC was hosted by Family Care International in New York. As of September 2014, it is graciously hosted by the East European Institute for Reproductive Health, located at 1 Moldovei St, 540493 Tirgu Mures, Romania. ECEC is a partner of the International Consortium for Emergency Contraception. ECEC is coordinated by Cristina Puig Borràs.
Last update: January 2023
Previous updates: February 2023, September 2022, August 2020
