Providing women with easy access to the emergency contraceptive Plan B did not lead them to engage in more risky sexual behavior, a study of more than 2,000 California women has concluded.
The study did find that women given a supply to keep at home were more than 1 1/2 times as likely to use the drug after unprotected sex as those who had to pick it up at a clinic or pharmacy. The findings led the study authors to conclude that easy access to Plan B, also called the morning-after pill, could reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies while posing no apparent risk to women.
The study contradicts a key claim made by opponents of easier access to Plan B at a time when the Food and Drug Administration is preparing to decide on a second application to allow nonprescription sales of the drug.
In an indication of the strong feelings on both sides, advocates of Plan B are planning a sit-in at FDA headquarters in Bethesda on Friday. Some protesters have called for civil disobedience if the FDA official who rejected the first Plan B application, Steven Galson of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, refuses to meet with them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48377-2005Jan4.html