A new day for morning-after pill?

[baby_bear]

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0705/19edpill.html

OUR OPINION

A new day for morning-after pill?

> Published on: 07/19/05
A new British study on over-the-counter emergency contraceptives found that direct access neither promoted promiscuity, as opponents alleged, nor reduced abortions, as proponents contended. In fact, the downgrade to over-the-counter status had little impact.

In their three-year study of more than 20,000 British women, researchers found that making the medication nonprescription didn't cause its popularity to skyrocket. Usage held steady at about 8 percent even when the "morning-after" pill became as easy to buy as cough drops. The study ought to be of interest to U.S. policy-makers, who continue to dither over whether to allow the morning-after pill to be sold here without a doctor's prescription.

Dressing up their purely religious objections with fictitious medical concerns, the extreme right opposes allowing the pills — marketed in this country under the brand name Plan B — to be sold over the counter. For political advantage, the far right has mislabeled emergency contraception as an abortion drug, but Plan B is similar to traditional birth control pills. A concentrated dose of the hormone progestin found in daily birth control pills, the drug cuts the chances of getting pregnant by up to 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of intercourse, thus making it vital that women be able to obtain it quickly.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ought to approve the application for Plan B and lift its ban on over-the-counter sales. Two FDA advisory committees studied Plan B and recommended that it go from a prescription-only to over-the-counter, calling it completely safe and finding no reason why women must see a doctor first. Still the agency balked, maintaining that over-the-counter sales might encourage risky sexual behavior, especially among adolescents.

</snip>

and also
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/politics/19crawford.html

July 19, 2005
Nominee Is Confirmed to Lead Food and Drug Administration
By GARDINER HARRIS
WASHINGTON, July 18 - The Senate on Monday night overwhelmingly confirmed President Bush's choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration, ending months of delay caused by a dispute over the morning-after pill and an investigation into accusations that the nominee, Dr. Lester M. Crawford, was having an affair with a colleague.

The vote, 78 to 16, was bipartisan.

</snip>

I don't know who voted against him yet.

b_b

[bliss_eternal]

1. kick

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