FDA Approves Over The Counter Abortions
 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Women can buy the morning-after pill without a prescription, the government declared Thursday, a major step that nevertheless failed to quell the politically charged debate over access to emergency contraception.

The manufacturer, lawmakers and other advocates said they will press the government to allow minors to purchase the pills over the counter.

The Food and Drug Administration said that women 18 and older -- and men purchasing for their partners -- may buy the Plan B pills without a doctor's note, but only from *******ies.

Girls 17 and younger still will need a prescription to buy the pills, the FDA told manufacturer Barr *******euticals Inc., in ruling on an application filed in 2003.
Still at odds

The compromise decision is a partial victory for women's advocacy and medical groups, which say easier access could halve the nation's 3 million annual unplanned pregnancies.

"While we are glad to know the FDA finally ended its foot-dragging on this issue, Planned Parenthood is troubled by the scientifically baseless restriction imposed on teenagers. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the Western world -- anything that makes it harder for teenagers to avoid unintended pregnancy is bad medicine and bad public policy," president Cecile Richards said.

Opponents contend that nonprescription availability could increase promiscuity and promote use of the pills by sexual predators.

"If the FDA thinks that enacting an age restriction will work, or that the drug company will enforce it ... then they are living in a dream world," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, who led the opposition.
Pregnancy risk reduced

Plan B contains a concentrated dose of the same drug found in many regular birth-control pills. Planned Parenthood estimates 41 other countries already allow women to buy emergency contraception without a prescription.

If a woman takes Plan B within 72 hours of unprotected sex, she can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent. Plan B is different from the abortion pill: If a woman already is pregnant, Plan B has no effect.

The earlier the pills are taken, the more effective they are. Allowing nonprescription sales mean women won't have to hustle to get a prescription, something especially difficult on weekends and holidays, advocates said.

The FDA's long delay in deciding on Barr's application ensnared President Bush's nominee to head the regulatory agency. On Thursday, two senators said they would lift their Plan-B-related block on Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.

In recent weeks, anti-abortion groups, angered that approval was imminent, had urged Bush to withdraw von Eschenbach's nomination. Bush said Monday that he supported the doctor's decisions.
Only at *******ies

Barr hopes to begin nonprescription sales of Plan B by the end of the year. The pills will be sold only from behind the counter at *******ies, but not at convenience stores or gas stations. *******ists will check photo identification.

There isn't enough scientific evidence that young teens can safely use Plan B without a doctor's supervision, von Eschenbach said in a memo. Over-the-counter use is safe for older teens and adults, the acting FDA commissioner added in explaining the age cutoff.

"This approach should help ensure safe and effective use of the product," wrote von Eschenbach.

Barr and others were disappointed that FDA imposed the age restriction. Bruce L. Downey, Barr's chairman, pledged to continue working with the agency to try to eliminate it.

The age restriction remains controversial even inside FDA, agency drugs chief Dr. Steven Galson told The Associated Press. Galson has acknowledged overruling his staff scientists, who concluded in 2004 that nonprescription sales would be safe for all ages.

"Let me be frank, there still are disagreements," Galson said in an interview. "There were disagreements from the first second this application came in the house."

The Center for Reproductive Rights said a lawsuit filed last year to do away with all age restrictions would continue.
Age-limit enforcement

As a condition of approval, Barr agreed to use anonymous shoppers and other methods to check whether *******ists are enforcing the age restriction.

"I'm sure the FDA will follow through on that and make sure these important conditions are established and enforced," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Barr hasn't said whether it will raise the price of the pills, which now cost $25 to $40 in prescription form.

Planned Parenthood, the largest dispenser of the pills, expects some insurers to continue covering prescription sales. Whether that would be cheaper will depend on a woman's insurance.

Nine states -- Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Washington and Vermont -- already allow certain *******ies to sell Plan B without a doctor's prescription to women of any age.

Minors won't see any change in those states, because the *******ist already technically writes the prescription, the American *******ists Association said.

The FDA approved prescription-only sales of Plan B in 1999. The quest to change its status began in 2003. That year, agency advisers endorsed nonprescription sales for all ages, and FDA's staff scientists agreed.

Higher-ranking officials rejected that recommendation, citing concerns about young teens using the pills without oversight. Barr reapplied, asking that women 16 and older be allowed to buy Plan B without a prescription. Then last August, the FDA postponed a final decision indefinitely, saying the agency needed to determine how to enforce the age restrictions.

FDA's handling of Plan B sparked a firestorm, with allegations of political meddling, high-profile resignations, lawsuits and congressional investigations.

The controversy appears to have helped Plan B sales, which are up an estimated 30 percent this year, according to IMS Health Inc., a health care consulting company. Barr estimates *******ists dispense about 1.5 million packs a year.

Stem cell research which can also kill a chid is still however still considered bad since it can save lives whereas Plan B just causes a life to cease. Maybe the FDA really stands for Federal Dumb Asses?

Re: FDA Approves Over The Counter Abortions
 

:rolleyes:

yea, sorry megarock you need to read what plan b is. It isn't an abortion issue. It is classified an emergency contraceptive. Which by definition prevents new life from coming to be. This is like calling a condom an abortion tool.

That would depend on where you think life begins.

My point exactly. Call it what you want but it all boils down to the same thing. Sperm reach the fertilisation site in about 50 minutes. That pretty much means once the two connect life begins to evolve and that's in less than an hour - not the next morning.

The 'morning after' pill is nothing more than a massive overdose of birth control pills. It's a green light for less protected sex since it's now available to anyone over the counter. It may prevent more unwanted pregnancies but if it's unwanted you shouldn't be having sex in the first place - go home and masturbate or get neutered.

Heh, what makes people care so much more about the life of a tiny organism in another woman than the lives of thousands of fully-grown men, women, and children in iraq (an estimated 50,000 civilians have been killed in the crossfire) or even a *bug* for that matter? For the love of god, it's an un-thinking, inanimate blip of about 10 skin cells arranged in a dot the size of a head of a pin at that point; what makes it more important than any other, more developed, more conscious creature living on earth?

I agree with you though that it's not good that this particular drug is (seemingly) encouraging un protected sex, however, obviously there's something wrong with the "let everybody that wants to have sex have a child" approach; would we rather have a bunch of children supported by undereducated, underpaid teenagers that don't want children, or would we rather let a few underdeveloped organisms die with the descretion and the desire of the parent? Is it worse to end the lives before they can develope into animate beings, or worse to turn the products - the children - over to disfunctional lives/families, while in the process potentially ruining the lives of the parents with the baby?

This seems hilariously sensationalist to me.

squakMix, it's the.....
The Culture Of Life!â„¢
Things we not happy with:

• Preventing the implantation of fertilized ovums
• Abortion
• Assisted suicide, even when it's what they wanted
• The removal of care based upon a living will

Things we are quite happy with:

• Convicts being killed by the state
• Our soldiers being sent to die in wars that don't need to be fought.
• "Collateral damage"

I disagree with at least 70% (if not virtually all) of that, but people are still entitled to their own rationales.

As for me, I'm curious what kind of note a minor will get from their doctor. "Well, she's not pregnant, and she SAYS she had sex, I dunno, could you please fill this prescription for Plan B?" Seems silly, as there's nothing to diagnose at that stage.

Probably for the same reason so many people are up in arms about stem cell research. We can't do it because of the Christian right wingers beause a 'childs life begins at conception' and although those cells seem miniscule to us do we really know that they are insignifigant or is there already a life there? It seems insane but no one really knows for sure. This is the reason stem cells can't be researched in hopes of finding a cure for diseases but seems to be ignored totally with Plan B.

The other issue is anyone who needs a Plan B needed a Plan A to start with. If you plan on getting it on you should be smart enough to have protected yourself in the first place. I see a need for the pill itself - expecially in the case of rapes and molestations - but not for everyday use which is what it will become as an OTC pill. At this point with it only being around for what - a year or two - it's already out of the doctors hands and can be taken by anyone, anywhere for any reason. It's the new birth control - not an emergency measure. And all you need is someone 18 to get it for you and you know that means an 18 year old boy picking it up for his 14 year old girlfriend which means all your daughters having sex younger and younger without fear of pregnancy.

This was a mistake, plain and simple. This isn't an argument over the pill itself - it's an argument that's it's now just as accessable as a box of Sudafed.

Plan B has been available in the UK for a while now, and I do know people who have taken it. And, it was always used when the Plan A failed.

The reaction that Plan B causes is very unpleasent. Nobody actually wants to take it.

As such it certainly hasn't increased promiscuity.

If you think that the consequences are going to be different in the USA, you are very much mistaken.

I don't think it will cause more unprotected sex. At around £25/$40 a pill, other contraceptives that are cheaper will always be used.

:weird:

Does anyone here have the slightest idea of what they're talking about?

First of all, this pill is not effective as a birth control measure. Even for a single event (rape, broken condom, stupidity, etc), it's only reducing your risk of pregnancy by 89%. It's a ... "oops, I screwed up, let me reduce the chances of my screw-up becoming a bigger problem". Like, you know, a "plan B" or something.

The primary action of hormonal EC pills is to prevent ovulation. Even the most whackjob nut can't possibly think that life exists without an egg being released. Unless, you know, you're Catholic or something, and all sperm have to have a fighting chance to impregnate a woman... but sex while not fertile (rhythm method) is ok... or something. I forget.

However, yes, it is possible for EC to prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. This happens a lot, in fact — it happens with no artificial hormones at all (and, I understand, actually happens more when you're using a "rhythm" type method). So if you define life as beginning at fertilization, then yes, this pill can cause an "abortion". Quite like using the rhythm method.

Uh... if there is an egg there. Which is true for, typically, less than 24 hours per cycle (about 28 days).

Oh, and will, actually, the side-effects of plan B (specifically that brand of EC) are relatively uncommon (though obviously still not pleasant), the most common being nausea at 23%. Though I agree with almost everything else you've mentioned. :)

MegaRock, in particular, and I'm sorry to say this, because it's probably going to seem mean, but you seem vastly uneducated as to what this pill is, what it does, how a woman's cycle works, and, um, well, a lot. Economics, psychology, how the pill will be offered (as compared to a bottle of Sudafed), how plan B was available before, and the availability of "the pill" (normal contraceptives) to minors. You didn't even read the article you fucking posted!

Hello? "Doctor's hands"? How hard was it to get EC before? Not very, depending on the state, but fuck, even in not-so-friendly states (Florida, for exmaple), all you'd have to do is go to a clinic offering it, and all the diagnostics they'd likely do include a pregnancy test and blood pressure. And, um, "a year or two"? Did you mean seven?

Really? I based my last post on what I've been told by friends who have taken them. Anecdotal evidence, I admit. Although it certainly has a reputation as being an unpleasent thing.

[edit]I was just reading the wiki page about EC/Plan B and saw this quote:And you know what, she is entirely correct.

Anti-abortionists should support the Plan B pill, because it does not cause an abortion and it reduces the need for abortions. Oh wait, they're not opposed to abortions, they're opposed to sex in general. Never mind.[/edit]

Women have the right to kill their unborn children and they do. What difference does the mechanism make?.

As far as this being an abortion pill, rather than a contraceptive. The regular pill is abortifacient. This is just an overdose of that.

Then they should also have the right to do what they want with their stem cells but they don't. If Plan B is ok and abortions are also OK then why isn't stem cell research?

Why are there numerous restrictions on abortions and not on Plan B pills. Should the law on abortions be changed to where anyone 18 can just walk in and get it done isntead of the legal hoops you have to jump through now since it is also preventing an unwanted pregnancy.

Isn't the best way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy to NOT HAVE SEX?

Discuss.

Abortion clinics are not sufficient to supply stem cells in enough quantity to do research, much less cure anyone. That means creating conception and embryos for harvest. Call me weird, but that sounds just a little creepy to me.

It's the best way to prevent a lot of problems. It doesn't have to go that far though. It's just a matter of ordinary care. But it seems we are digressing so that a handshake is a more personal experience that sex.

Sometime, maybe I'll write about my concerns that medical research, in general, doesn't serve the interest of society. After all, 25% of us won't get the benefit of the most basic medical care, but we'll pay taxes to invent the machine that goes ping!".

Yes.

But the will to have sex is inbuilt into every human. It's part of what makes us human. It is something that has helped us evolve.

So a percentage of people will ignore your advice about not having sex. And they will have sex. And if they are not using contraception, they will have unwanted pregnancys.

And that, leads to abortion. Administered by either a doctor or a coat-hanger.

This is self-evident. Example: my girlfriend went to a catholic school which taught abstinence only. Shes knows a LOT of girls who've either had a teenage pregnancy or an abortion. I went to a school which taught safe-sex. I don't know anybody whos had a teenage pregancy or an abortion.


The way to prevent unwanted pregnancys (and thus abortions) is therefore not to teach abstinence (because it doesn't work). Instead, teach about contraception. Which does work.

We both want the same thing. Less abortions. But it is impossible for you stop people having sex. So shouldn't we work towards letting people have sex safely?

And if an abortion is going to happen (because you can't stop them from happening) lets make it safe and well regulated.

Now we'll digress into the bowels of flagrant liberalism and see what we dredge out.

Illegitimacy, 50% divorce rates, climbing STD rates, drug addiction, abortions and the destruction of family units. Traditional morality trying to be supplanted by some utopic "Disneyland" created by the liberals. Where everyone is a ride.

The curve between liberalism and conservatism is slippery on both sides. Slipping too far either way becomes despotism.

It's a pity the war is always fought by pointing at extremism on either side. Most of us know what's reasonable, but you'd never know it from our government.

The bottom line is that Plan B should be readily available because there is no good reason for it to be otherwise. If that makes sense.

The idea that promiscuity is wrong is not in the liberal mindset. The idea that abstinence is taught somehow interferes with individual rights.

It's this belief, that people have no ability to control themselves and need the state to "save" them from their own debacle is at the core of liberalism.

You can get a free condom or a federally assisted abortion, but can you get someone to tell you that promiscuity is wrong?. Wrong, for a lot of reasons. Not just because God said so. And not for purely health reasons either.

As far as contraception goes.... who cares?. These issues are long over. Some fundamentalist footdragging doesn't matter.

Completely misses the point.
Completely misses the point.
Wait, so what you're saying is that freedom is liberalism?
So, what you're saying is you want to tell people things that don't agree with religious or scientific principles? Wow. It's good we have your opinion to guide us, Big Brother. I can't imagine what life was like in a country with free will and freedom of expression. Savages.
Wow. Let's give up the English language because some people didn't learn the alphabet. Let's give up math because some people didn't learn to add.

Do you read these posts before you read them? Because I have had a whole bottle of spirits and somehow I can still see how humans (you know, people) can make mistakes, and how some of them can do the wrong thing from time to time.

People who think they are so much smarter than the average person are often the most ignorant of all.

But those "mistakes" are granted the merit of the status quo.

Being a scumbag actually used to have a social stigma.

Not as far as I can tell. The fact that people have made and will make mistakes is obviously the status quo, but to think that these kinds of treatments are by any means commonplace or not frowned-upon is entirely inaccurate.
I'm fairly sure it still does.

You can't stop someone from having sex. You can stop them from becoming pregnant. Remember, we are the same human race that is told to 'remember to spay and neuter your pets'. We also have normal everyday birth control pills. We have reversable human 'neutering'. There are a multitude of ways to prevent pregnancy yet every one of them are items that are administered by a doctor.

That's the problem I see with this pill - it completely eliminates medical care. You can walk into the store and so long as you're 18 (or know someone who is) you can readily pick it up like a roll of toilet paper. You can't even do that with normal birth control pills which ironically are the same ingredient but at a way lower dose.

So why can you buy Plan B over the counter and you can't a normal birth control pill? It seems our normally overspoken politicans who supported Plan B don't want to talk about it and thus the problem. Why should it be easier to buy a pill to stop a pregnancy (no matter how early or late) than it is to buy allergy medication? Because of Federal laws it is harder to buy Sudafed than it is the Plan B pill. Personally I find that a little fucked up.

The other problem is because it is so easy to get it will without a doubt encourage teen sex more than everything else in society already does. There is even less of a risk of getting pregnant if all you have to do is stop by Wal Mart and pick up a Plan B pill and take it. Sure, you'll get a bit sick but that's better than explaining to mom and dad that you're screwing the school quarterback. The fear of pregnancy actually keeps some teens from doing it but with that fear gone it's just one less thing for them to worry about.

It's a dangerous thing to do without medical advice. It's more dangerous because you can buy it easier than cold medication. No advice, no barriers. If that's not stupid I don't know what is.

it is easy to obtain because (by it's very nature of being emergancy contraception) it needs to be obtained and taken in a short a time as possible to work.

If a visit to a doctor was required, then under many senarios one wouldn't get the pill in time to take it.

It's purely for practical reasons.

Anyway, arn't condoms even easier to obtain (see bathroom vending machines)? Arn't they already the obvious choice for teens? Cheaper too, and more effective. And easier to use. Plan B is the least obvious choice for teens.

Plan B hasn't increased teenage sex in the UK, and I can't think of any reason why it would be different in the USA.

You have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

Um. Because Sudafed is effectively the/a primary ingredient in a highly addictive illicit drug. Plan B isn't.

Cost, convenience, unreliability, and side effects will easily make Plan B a very unappealing choice for contraception.

Plan B is not dangerous. Fuck, aspirin is far more dangerous. Sudafed, unaltered Sudafed, is probably more dangerous.

If you're going to be opposed to this pill because it can sometimes cause a fertilized egg not to be implanted (which happens naturally all the damn time!), then fine! I disagree, but at least you'd have a remotely–tenable argument.

Don't try this other bullshit. Sorry. will, zootm, and I actually have read enough information on Plan B, and if you'd do the same, you'd realize that that argument is just about all you have.

Are you telling me that if some deranged idiot boyfriend of a female who became pregnant and wanted to keep the child but he didn't decided to slip this super intense dose of birth control to her there would be no ill effects?

This was pulled from the Ortho-Evra (birth control) manufacturer's website about the standard birth control:

"Can you use several birth control pills at once for emergency contraception?

It's possible but not recommended. Don't try taking several birth control pills in an attempt to prevent pregnancy without first consulting with your doctor. Using birth control pills in this way hasn't undergone formal testing, so it's unknown whether this is even a safe thing to do."

And that's CURRENT information. The Plan B pill is essentially the same as taking an entire month's worth of pills. Want to tell me it's been formally tested any longer than the other dangerous ass things that have been recalled from the market because after people started dying they discovered the bad things shit can do?

I just found the thread/article title hilarious. Didn't bother even reading the article, as I coudl immediately tell it would be biased moer than the amount the Hitler hated the Jews.

I work at an urban, poor socio-economic-status public school.

I see children who are the product of parents that have no business being parents. They are raised in conditions that make me want to vomit. They are physically and emotionally abused, some intentionally, some through unintentional stupidity/negligence. Many have nutritional deficiencies, many have to raise their younger siblings rather than do homework.

Do I think Plan B is abortion? Yes.

Do I think abortion is homicide? Yes.

Do I think homicide is wrong? Usually.

What needs to be understood is the fact that many “pregnancies terminated” by Plan B are horror stories terminated by a “lesser of two evils” measure. The pregnancies that most need to be prevented/terminated are likely those from parents who aren’t responsible enough to go through getting a prescription. Having Plan B available for people that were too drunk to stop and say “put on a condom” can stop a child from growing up with parents that weren’t ready to reproduce.

Err, this is not the same as normal birth control pills.

Err, this is not the same as normal birth control pills.

Never mind. Never mind the fact that "plan B" is a certified and tested treatment that's been around for years. Never mind that it's never been intended for regular use.

You cannot reason with the unreasonable.

Sure, she might have normal side-effects (nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, headache). Did you mean would it cause a miscarriage? No, it won't, or if it can, the effect is so slight that it has yet to be extracted out of statistical noise. Likewise with birth defects.

That's interesting. Why would you mention Ortho-Evra, a birth control patch, when talking about questions about birth-control pills?

And that's funny, Google only pulls up nine indexed sites, and none of them appear to have anything to do with Ortho-Evra, or Johnson & Johnson.

The original appears to be here:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bir...l-pill/WO00098

Try this. Go to Google, and type in "Emergency Contraception". Click on the first link. Click "frequently asked questions". See question #2: "What birth control pills can be used for emergency contraception in the United States?" Click on it.

http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/dose.html

Oh, but you're right, this isn't a very reputable source, it's only fucking Princeton.

An entire month's worth of very-low-dose, progesterone-only pills, yes. About the same amount of progesterone as three to 7.5 doses worth of normal birth control pills.
About 46 years of birth control pill research isn't enough for you?

Ok, let's say that preventing a fertilized egg from implanting is the same as an abortion, for the moment.

It still isn't accurate to call Plan B an abortion, because that action is at best its secondary effect. Yes, it can happen that way, but the primary effect of Plan B is to prevent ovulation, that is, to prevent the egg from ever being fertilized, that is, the egg don't come near the dern spermies.

Calling Plan B abortion is, at best, inaccurate.

Secondary is still possible, and without some sort of high-tech ultrasound, it's virtually impossible to know if it was primary or secondary that actually happened, so using "inaccurate" in the above post would be inaccurate.

To support you though, you're right that Plan B is not always abortion, but it can be and sometimes is. You could have used "misleading" or "not always the case", but not "inaccurate".

Driving a car is murder.

See the problem? It's inaccurate. In my example, wildly inaccurate. But still not, by your logic, "inaccurate".

But really, mincing words is pointless. In most cases, Plan B is not "abortion". By your definition of abortion, Plan B, when its primary action has failed, can increase the liklihood of an abortion. (In most cases, in fact, a pregnancy would not have occurred anyway, and really, considering someone pregnant because they have a fertilized egg in them is rediculous anyway.)

xzxzzx, consider this definition of abortion (it's not one I espouse, but it's what I'm hearing, as best as I can tell):

"A contraceptive* effort initiated after a sexual act that could otherwise result in pregnancy."

That's what your opponents are arguing.

*of course contraceptive is a troublesome word here, given the time frame. I suppose an alternative would be "anti-pregnancy."

Like most of the time you didn't kill a baby. The pill is abortifacient, which means you killed conception. How many times when you use the pill?. How many "abortions" compared to contraceptive incidents?.

This is irrelevant. Abortion is legal. Abortion is gonna stay legal. The main problem here is minors. As parents, we're supposed to guide them to proper attitudes and responsible thinking. If there was ever a time a pregnant teenager needed the counsel of her parents, it's when she's pregnant. I think that young girls who get pregnant or put themselves in that position might have "issues" that need to be addressed by informed parents.

Buying into the idea that parents are abusive creatures that are incapable of making decisions about the lives of their children is the liberal ideal. I need some 22 year old social worker that has an associates degree to tell me about parenting. Unfortunately you can tell her skill at husbandry from her ill trained dog that humps your leg.

Who is saying that parents are abusive? I know lots of liberals and I have not heard many of them saying such things. Also many liberals do not believe a child should raise themselves. Why do we need the government to enforce this? Your last paragraph is like me saying, "Buying into the idea that children cannot be trusted to make the right decision to come to me as a parent is a conservative idea".

Theoretically, no. If one kills someone by accident it is called manslaughter. The driver didn't intend to but because of even the slightest negligence that person is convicted and jailed for the death of another.

And that's the point I'm trying to get across here. The way this has been released has all but eliminated any possible 'help' someone in this situation may get or to avoid the situation in the future. There is no medical advice or help. In the same way many of us used to give someone a few bucks to get us beer when we were underage one can now get an 'abortion' or a 'non abortion' - whichever you prefer calling it. Then in a teens mind they think - ok, had unprotected sex, almost got pregnant, took a pill and it went away. Hell, I can have all the sex I want now and mom/dad will never know a thing about it.

That should scare the shit out of any parent out there.

I'm also wondering what kind of 'testing' has been done on this pill. Take it once, twice and it's probably ok. What happens the fifth or tenth time some stupid teenager takes it. What happens when some teenager thinks that all they have to do to avoid pregnancy is to take this pill the next day? I'm kinda dumbfounded as to how so many people don't have an issue at all with this thing being sold over the counter.