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The FDA will not permit Plan B, the emergency contraceptive, to be sold over the counter.
Despite having a really thoughtful debate/argument about this last night with people I repect, I'm still saddened and pissed off this morning. I think that blithely assuming that it will be available in time and by perscription is dangerous.
The contraceptive uses of a megadose of The Pill have been known for decades, but Catholic hospitals in particular are notorious for refusing to dispense it even to rape victims on religious grounds. And there's currently a law working its way through the Texas judiciary to make it legal for pharmacists to not only refuse to dispense it themselves on religious grounds but to refuse to carry it in the pharmacy and refuse to tell where it can be obtained!
It has not been made available in the past to everyone who wants/needs it, and there is no reason to assume it will be so in the future, particularly with what looks like a gaining attitude of "my religion can trump your self determination." According to the Post, the FDA's "own expert advisory panel, which voted 23 to 4 late last year that the drug should be sold over the counter and then, that same day, 27 to 0 that the drug could be safely sold as an over-the-counter medication."
But it was heavily protested. Not mainly by doctors - again from the Post, "the main organizations that represent doctors who specialize in treating women -- including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists -- said all the scientific questions about the safety and proper use of Plan B had been resolved and only politics would keep it from being approved." No, it was protested mostly by people who redefine contraception as abortion, who claim that having it available will make people have more sex. (As if they're having any less right now.) Concerned Women for America thinks the White House should be regulating drugs. CWA stands for everything I revile (and vice versa) and they're making the damn drug policy, not the doctors.
Crap like this is why I marched. And at that march, I got one of the perscriptions for Plan B that the radical doctors were giving out. The very day after, I took it to a pharmacy.
Took 'em three days to get it in my hands. Three days, for a drug that is best taken within one, and is no longer effective after five.
Okay, I didn't need it, I just wanted it, mostly to see if I could get it. But now ask yourself - can you even GET to your doctor in 2 to three days? If you don't have it on hand and they don't have it on hand and you have to wait to get to the doctor and then to the pharmacist, you're screwed in more ways than one.
I admit - this stuff isn't candy. Like any drug, it has the potential to be misused or to cause horrible reactions. But pregnancy is no walk in the park, particularly an unwanted pregnancy, and abortion is far more invasive and traumatizing than a pair of pills. Plus, Plan B is already available OTC in 33 countries, and they can't be having major problems from pill abuse or those statistics would have already been shown to the FDA.
33 countries. If this was the second thalidimyde, we'd know by now.
I will admit, I'm one of the unaffected people. I'm lucky enough to have the means to get either the pills or an abortion should I need one. But for all the women who can't, for all the women who just plain resent being told "no" because someone *else* is trumping doctors' advice - this is a travesty.
Despite having a really thoughtful debate/argument about this last night with people I repect, I'm still saddened and pissed off this morning. I think that blithely assuming that it will be available in time and by perscription is dangerous.
The contraceptive uses of a megadose of The Pill have been known for decades, but Catholic hospitals in particular are notorious for refusing to dispense it even to rape victims on religious grounds. And there's currently a law working its way through the Texas judiciary to make it legal for pharmacists to not only refuse to dispense it themselves on religious grounds but to refuse to carry it in the pharmacy and refuse to tell where it can be obtained!
It has not been made available in the past to everyone who wants/needs it, and there is no reason to assume it will be so in the future, particularly with what looks like a gaining attitude of "my religion can trump your self determination." According to the Post, the FDA's "own expert advisory panel, which voted 23 to 4 late last year that the drug should be sold over the counter and then, that same day, 27 to 0 that the drug could be safely sold as an over-the-counter medication."
But it was heavily protested. Not mainly by doctors - again from the Post, "the main organizations that represent doctors who specialize in treating women -- including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists -- said all the scientific questions about the safety and proper use of Plan B had been resolved and only politics would keep it from being approved." No, it was protested mostly by people who redefine contraception as abortion, who claim that having it available will make people have more sex. (As if they're having any less right now.) Concerned Women for America thinks the White House should be regulating drugs. CWA stands for everything I revile (and vice versa) and they're making the damn drug policy, not the doctors.
Crap like this is why I marched. And at that march, I got one of the perscriptions for Plan B that the radical doctors were giving out. The very day after, I took it to a pharmacy.
Took 'em three days to get it in my hands. Three days, for a drug that is best taken within one, and is no longer effective after five.
Okay, I didn't need it, I just wanted it, mostly to see if I could get it. But now ask yourself - can you even GET to your doctor in 2 to three days? If you don't have it on hand and they don't have it on hand and you have to wait to get to the doctor and then to the pharmacist, you're screwed in more ways than one.
I admit - this stuff isn't candy. Like any drug, it has the potential to be misused or to cause horrible reactions. But pregnancy is no walk in the park, particularly an unwanted pregnancy, and abortion is far more invasive and traumatizing than a pair of pills. Plus, Plan B is already available OTC in 33 countries, and they can't be having major problems from pill abuse or those statistics would have already been shown to the FDA.
33 countries. If this was the second thalidimyde, we'd know by now.
I will admit, I'm one of the unaffected people. I'm lucky enough to have the means to get either the pills or an abortion should I need one. But for all the women who can't, for all the women who just plain resent being told "no" because someone *else* is trumping doctors' advice - this is a travesty.
