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morning after pill gets over-counter recommendation
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| nchs09 |
i think its great... no more dumbass babys made by dumbass people who ed it ............. literally |
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| tranceDJ |
| It's a good thing, people are going to have sex no matter what they're told...at least now if it's unprotected and people are worried about pregnency, they can get the morning after pill without worry their parents will find out and . I think all would agree that taking the morning after pill beats out abortion or having to give a child up for adoption. |
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| TrAnCe CoNtRoL |
| do you think though, that people will go about saying 'well if the pills are available over the counter, i dont need to wear a condem.' cause thats exactly what im thinking peoples logic is going to be. i think there is a lot more behind this. |
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| tranceDJ |
| quote: | Originally posted by TrAnCe CoNtRoL
do you think though, that people will go about saying 'well if the pills are available over the counter, i dont need to wear a condem.' cause thats exactly what im thinking peoples logic is going to be. i think there is a lot more behind this. |
I think thats the only concern but hopefully this won't happen because I'm guessing there's still a risk in pregnency with the morning after pill plus it makes you really sick I think. |
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| nrjizer |
| Well birth controll pills via perscription wern't very uncommon in the first place, and emergency morning-after's wernt incredibly difficult to get if you needed one. So I dont think it would promote less condom use. It would just help the morons who would have needed them anyways. |
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| daffodil |
| quote: | Originally posted by TrAnCe CoNtRoL
do you think though, that people will go about saying 'well if the pills are available over the counter, i dont need to wear a condem.' cause thats exactly what im thinking peoples logic is going to be. i think there is a lot more behind this. |
i highly doubt it. it's not as reliable as a condom, plus it's a pretty unpleasant experience for most women. first off, it's far more expensive than condoms, and it's physically unpleasant. the morning after pill works as a huge hormone flux which makes most women pretty sick, or at the very least feel as if they are having the worst PMS of their life. most men don't consider this, but PMS is miserable for women, not just y'all.
i think if anyone considers using it as a birth control method, they will cease after the first time. |
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| DJ-Fuq |
| I dont think people will stop using condoms because of this. Pills have loads of disadvantages, like not stopping infections |
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| YaleTrance |
| quote: | Originally posted by daffodil
i highly doubt it. it's not as reliable as a condom, plus it's a pretty unpleasant experience for most women. first off, it's far more expensive than condoms, and it's physically unpleasant. the morning after pill works as a huge hormone flux which makes most women pretty sick, or at the very least feel as if they are having the worst PMS of their life. most men don't consider this, but PMS is miserable for women, not just y'all.
i think if anyone considers using it as a birth control method, they will cease after the first time. |
true. going through this with my ex-girlfriend a few years ago was one the worst experiences of my life. she got so sick, i felt horrible. :confused: |
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| DaveSaenz |
My thread in the debate forum didn't go anywhere (I guess everyone agreed with me). Here are my thoughts:
http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/News/Story/76116.html]
| quote: |
Plan B pill may be OK'd
December 16, 2003
By GINA KOLATA The New York Times
GAITHERSBURG, Md. - In a 23-4 vote, two expert advisory committees to the Food and Drug Administration recommended Tuesday that a so-called morning-after pill to prevent unintended pregnancies be sold over the counter.
The FDA usually follows the advice of its committees, though the final decision rests with its commissioner, Dr. Mark McClellan. But the overwhelming vote by the agency's outside advisers led both proponents and opponents of the move to expect that McClellan would go along with the committees, making his decision within weeks to months.
The drug is an emergency contraceptive known as Plan B, when Plan A (regular contraception) either fails or is skipped. Consisting of two high-dose birth control pills, Plan B is meant to be used within 72 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse.
If approved, its widespread availability could have an effect second only to the advent of the birth control pill, advocates say. The proponents, including groups like Planned Parenthood, argued to the panel that Plan B was safe and could prevent many unintended pregnancies.
But opponents, including some religious groups, told panel members that over-the-counter sales could encourage irresponsible sexual behavior. They also worry that women may not understand how this type of pill works. While it usually acts by preventing ovulation, it also may prevent a fertilized egg from implanting. Those who believe that pregnancy begins with fertilization say that the pills, then, can induce abortions.
The company that will market Plan B, Barr Laboratories, says it will provide detailed information to women on what the pills do and on how to use them.
It wants to sell the drug only in stores with pharmacies, but adds that it plans to advertise widely to women and doctors, letting them know the drug is easily available. The prescription now sells for $25 to $35, the company said, adding that it had not decided what to charge for over-the-counter sales.
If the FDA agrees, proponents and opponents say, they expect enormous medical and social consequences.
Dr. James Trussell, an advisory committee member from Princeton, who enthusiastically voted for the approval, said he had waited for years for this day to arrive.
"It's hard to believe it actually happened," he said. Making Plan B over the counter, he added, "sends a signal to women that it is safe."
But Dr. W. David Hager of the University of Kentucky, one of four committee members to vote against the approval, worried about the implications for sexual behavior. Like birth control pills that, he said, ushered in "a new day and age for the expression of sexuality among young people," making Plan B available over the counter will have a similar effect.
"What we heard today was frequently about individuals who did not want to take responsibility for their actions and wanted a medication to relieve those consequences," Hager said.
He said he worried in particular about giving license to adolescents who could just buy the drug on their own.
While Plan B and a similar drug, Preven made by Gynetics, were, in theory, available to women by prescription, medical experts say that the drugs were woefully underused , even in five states that passed laws to make them easier to obtain. Those states - Washington, California, Alaska, New Mexico and Hawaii - allow pharmacists to provide emergency contraceptives to women without a prescription.
Dr. Carole Ben-Maimon, the president of Barr Laboratories, which is buying Plan B from Women's Capital, explained the problem.
"California had a huge media campaign," she said, with ads to consumers and health care professionals.
Yet, she added, only 14 percent of pharmacies and pharmacists provide the drugs without a prescription.
"In a state as large as California, finding emergency contraception without a prescription is still an enormous challenge," Ben-Maimon said.
Another obstacle for women is that they are required to talk to the pharmacists, who decide whether emergency contraception is indicated.
"In my pharmacy, there aren't any areas where I can hold a private conversation with my pharmacist," Ben-Maimon said.
At the meeting Tuesday, two FDA committees, the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs, heard evidence from FDA staff, the company marketing the drug and the public. The panels consist of experts in a variety of fields, including obstetrics and gynecology, pharmacology, pediatrics, internal medicine and reproductive endocrinology.
They also represent a spectrum of views on birth control, from Dr. Joseph B. Stanford, who says he does not prescribe birth control pills, to Trussell, a vocal advocate of all forms of contraception.
The company provided data from studies that surveyed women ages 12 to 50 in shopping malls, showed them the label, and assessed their comprehension. It also provided a study of more than 500 women in family planning centers who took the drug, asking whether they followed instructions. Both types of studies, the company argued, indicate that women can understand the label and take the drug as intended.
Extensive studies with contraceptives also indicate that Plan B is safe, the company said. Side effects, like nausea and vomiting, were limited and minor, it reported, adding that it knew of no deaths. Then it was the public's turn to speak. Each speaker was allotted two minutes before the panel.
"Women deserve access at any time, at any age, for any reason," said a young woman from the Gainesville, Fla., area chapter of the National Organization for Women. "I braved football game traffic to go to the campus infirmary." It was closed. "I had no idea where I could get it," and so, she said, she just hoped for the best.
Opponents said the data did not convince them that the drug was safe enough to be so freely available.
"Women could theoretically start using Plan B as a form of birth control," said Dr. Chris Kahlenborn, an internist in Altoona, Pa. "In Jamaica, pharmacists are ringing alarms: some women are using it twice a month, some as often as five times a month."
He and others are also concerned that women who believe that pregnancy begins with fertilization may not appreciate that they can be preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.
Judy Brown, president of the American Life League, said, "the pill acts to prevent a pregnancy by aborting a child."
And so, she added, while Plan B may be called emergency contraception "the emergency in this case is a baby."
Committee members urged that the drug's actions be described so that women understood that a fertilized egg might be disrupted..
Others argued that pregnancy was a far worse alternative, for teenagers.
"It is the rare adolescent that ever comes to see me before she has sex the first time," said Dr. Abby Berenson, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. "Usually that's because she hadn't planned to have it in the first place. It just happens, usually on a Saturday night when I'm not available." |
The implications that this pill, if approved for OTC sales, could have in terms of reducing teen and adult unwanted pregnancy and abortion are staggering.
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/li...npreg_fact.html
| quote: | Rates of Teenage Childbearing in the U.S. Are the Highest in the Developed World.
The U.S. teenage birth rate is the highest in the developed world: twice as high as England’s, three times as high as Australia’s, four times as high as Germany’s, six times as high as France’s, eight times as high as the Netherlands’, and 15 times as high as Japan’s (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 1998; Berne & Huberman, 1999).
Reasons for the lower rates of teenage childbearing in these countries include mandatory, medically accurate sexuality education programs that provide comprehensive information and encourage teens to make responsible choices easy access to contraception and other forms of reproductive health care, including abortion social acceptance of adolescent sexual expression as normal and healthy straightforward public health media campaigns government support for the right of teens to accurate information and confidential services (Berne & Huberman, 1999) |
I can also recall reading that the teen pregnancy rate in Canada, our next door neighbor, is half that of the USA.
As the developed country with the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world, we should be fighting to follow the examples of other developed countries in reducing teen and other unwanted pregnancy by adopting comprehensive sex education and making contraceptives widely and easily available. Obviously abstinance is the best meathod to avoid STDs and unwanted pregnancy; this should be taught as such. But, there should also be an emphasis on the correct use of contraceptives for those who choose to have sex.
Many countries already sell 'Plan B' OTC.
I hope Dr. McLellan makes the right decision, and chooses not to listen to the hypocritical position of religious conservatives on this issue. The conservative position seems to imply that women are too stupid or dense to know when they need to take the "morning after" pill. Why would women take something that makes them feel like they have the flu for a day if they truly didn't believe they were at risk for an unwanted pregnancy? Women deserve more credit than that.
The good news:
| quote: | Thirteen percent of all U.S. births are to teens (AGI, 1998).
Preliminary findings show that in 1998, 484,975 women aged 15–19 gave birth, a rate of 51.1 live births per 1,000 women in this age group. This figure marks a two percent decrease from the 1997 rate and an 18 percent decrease from the 1991 rate. Moreover, the 1998 rate is close to the 1986 record low of 50.2 (Ventura et al., 1999).
The preliminary teenage birth rate in 1998 was one birth per 1,000 women aged 10–14, 51.1 births per 1,000 women aged 15–19, 30.4 births per 1,000 women aged 15–17, and 82.0 births per 1,000 women aged 18–19 , That year, the teenage birth rate was 93.7 per 1,000 for Hispanics, 85.3 per 1,000 for blacks, and 45.4 per 1,000 for whites (Ventura et al., 1999)
Seventy-six percent of teens giving birth in 1996 were unmarried. Sixty-nine percent of births to white teens, 96 percent of births to blacks teens, and 68 percent of births to Hispanic teens occur out-of-wedlock (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 1998). However, teens now account for only 30 percent of all births outside of marriage, a decline from 50 percent in 1970 (AGI, 1998). |
Teen pregnancy is in steady decline. I'm sure it will continue to do so as long as the abstinence only "sex ed" policies of Pat Robertson's camp don't make it into the mainstream. |
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| DaveSaenz |
| quote: | Originally posted by tranceDJ
I think thats the only concern but hopefully this won't happen because I'm guessing there's still a risk in pregnency with the morning after pill plus it makes you really sick I think. |
It does. People won't want to rely on it as a primary meathod of contraception because it may make you feel sick for like a day or two afterwards. |
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| Misty Kitty |
I dont think it will lessen the use of condoms, its not as if it is being advertised as the 'brand new best way to avoid pregnancies, you dont even have to remember a condom when your that wasted'
But as said above will drastically reduce teen and many other ages of unwanted pregnancies. Especially as a lot of the younger generation are scared to talk to adults when they get in these sorts of troubles, and are therefore less likely to ask for help. I think in this day and age is a very good thing, and if the more accessible it is means the more it will be used, then over the counter it should be.
On that it makes the lady sick, this was not the case when i took it once (and never again i might add) no side effects at all. |
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