US FDA CONSIDERS DEREGULATING PLAN B EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTIVE

 

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is grappling with the explosive question of whether to let anyone of any age buy the controversial morning-after pill PLAN B, an emergency contraceptive directly off drugstore and supermarket shelves without a prescription. The Food and Drug Administration has until Wednesday to respond to a request from the drug’s manufacturer to make the pill as easy to get as toilet paper and toothpaste, a move pushed by some doctors, health advocates, family-planning activists, members of Congress and others to help women prevent unwanted pregnancies. Plan B was approved in 1999 but was only accessible to women who had doctor’s prescription to get it. Since 2003, pro-choice drug manufacturers are making move to ease the rules to allow free sales of the drug. According to their argument, this will avoid panics after having unprotected sex or after a condom break and even make it easier for female victims of rape to avoid conception.

Plan B consists of a synthetic form of progesterone; this hormone is found in many standard birth-control pills, but Plan B contains it at higher doses. Taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, the pill has been shown to be 89 percent effective at safely preventing pregnancy. The drug has long been controversial and was the focus of one of the biggest health disputes during the administration of President George W. Bush. Plan B works primarily by preventing an egg from being fertilized. Critics, however, focus on the chance that it may prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb, an action they consider equivalent to an abortion. As a result, it has been the subject of intense debate and conflict. Some doctors refuse to write prescriptions for it, some pharmacists refuse to fill requests, and some hospitals refuse to provide it to patients.

However, for the pro-life members, Plan B is an abortifacient . “It’s not a drug that prevents life — it’s a drug that destroys life,” said Jeanne Monahan of the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group. “If we define life as beginning at fertilization or conception, then this drug can be an abortifacient.” Easing the rules for its sales will encourage not just indiscriminate sex but will make the attack on life via abortion easier, efficient and cost effective. We pray they do not get through with this proposal.