If the possibility of having to discuss your sex life with a stranger – potentially in front of a line of nosy customers – during your lunch hour isn’t enough to put you off getting the morning-after pill from your local high-street chemist, the idea that said chemist is judging you will probably do the trick.

After Superdrug and Tesco cut the prohibitive price of the morning-after pill following a campaign by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), it was assumed that much-loved pharmacy chain Boots would follow suit.

However, the chemist has said in a statement that the price will not drop in its 2,500 sites across the UK – reasoning that were it to match Superdrug’s £13.49, it would encourage “inappropriate use” (presumably envisaging women across the nation binning condoms and hormonal contraceptives by the truckload and rushing to Boots for a levonorgestrel jamboree).

In a letter to BPAS, Marc Donovan, chief pharmacist of Boots UK, said: “In our experience the subject of emergency hormonal contraception polarises public opinion and we receive frequent contact from individuals who voice their disapproval of the fact that the company chooses to provide this service.

“We would not want to be accused of incentivising inappropriate use, and provoking complaints, by significantly reducing the price of this product.”

Which implies that the company has chosen to prioritise the opinions of individuals who disapprove of women being able to access emergency contraception over the women who need it because it doesn’t want to cause a scene, as it were.

Unfortunately for the chain, the decision to reveal that keeping its pricing is a deliberate strategy to stop women using the product is already causing just such a scene, with many calling for a boycott.

Boots forced to apologise for “poor choice of words” after morning-after pill furore