FDA Considers Allowing Morning After Pill Without Prescription
A heated debate has arisen inside and outside of the Food and Drug Administration on whether or not the agency should allow the morning after pill to be sold without a prescription. This "Plan B" would apply to women over age 16.
The pill prevents conception some 72 hours after intercourse. Supporters of Plan B say it would help women who don't have access to doctors on the weekend, and it would stop thousands of unwanted abortions and pregnancies.
Opponents of Plan B say it would encourage teenagers to engage in risky sex. Neither side questions the safety of the drug or its effectiveness. The FDA's advisors asked for Plan B last May but the FDA said it didn't have enough data on teen usage.
I am sick of the debate over shit like this. It's basically the bible thumping women haters that want to control women that have a problem with this. I somehow doubt that women are going to rely on this as the sole method of birth control. We have enough people being born as it is without some teen getting knocked up by accident and then thanks to the religious facists being forced to have an unwanted baby to 'teach her a lesson.' This is not going to help anyone. If men could get pregnant this would not even be debated. Anyone who has a problem with this pill is just ill informed or a religious woman hating ass.
I think this is a catch 22 but one that should be allowed. The pill easy acces could encourage more sexual behavior between users but at the same time I think it is better that they take action before it is too late. I rather see them use the pill then to have a abortion a few motnhs later or have a child that will be mis treated. Not saying that all unplanned pregancies happen to those that can not take care of a kid or that do not want one. But this article makes me think it will be targeted at a younger generation of users ones that fall into the statistics of welfare, low income, drop outs and so on.
Give the bible basher bashing rhetoric a break. This has nothing to do with religion, or teaching anyone a lesson, and its pretty ignorant of you to act like it does. The two fundemental concerns here are a) that using it will be seen as condoning and promoting casual sex among teens, and b) that teens, being the least responsible group sexually may decide that unprotected sex is okay, as they can always get a morning after pill. These are very real concerns, and have to be weighed against the advantages of readily available of post-coitus contraception.
Just because one has brains and objectivity doesnt make one a bible thumping woman hater. Grow up.
The only people with these fundemental concerns are idiots like you that think that sex is some kind of evil that needs to be stamped out. It is this same 'logic' that suggests we not educate our youth correctly in these matters. Anything that can reduce unwanted pregnancy without the dream world scenario of teens not having sex is a good thing. And for the record having a different opinion to you does not mean I need to grow up. Maybe it is you that needs to grow. After all you are still commenting on a subject you have never experienced.
Hey, you're the one stating that anyone that doesn't agree with you must be a woman hating religious fanatic. Thats what I directed my "grow up" comment at. And I'll do it again. GROW UP ALREADY!
Teens are teens, if they are going to have sex, they should be using protection, not relying on a morning after pill. We aren't simply talking pregnancy here, as you seem to assume, we are talking chlamidya, herpes, and aids and other rampant STDs.
Closing your eyes adn pretending that this isnt a real concern is not very enlightened.
So you think that an effective and safe drug should be banned because of the possiblity someone will rely on it in a situation where they shouldn't? That is like saying aspirin should be banned because someone might take it when they should be seeking medical treatment for a concussion.
Hammers should be banned, because you could hit someone with one.
Pens and pencils should be controlled items because someone could get stabbed with a pencil or pen.
Most importantly, however, we shouldn't teach them about responsible sex, we should keep them uneducated on the subject to prevent them from considering sex. Overall, I understand your arguement, and completely disagree with it. ANYTHING can be misused, we can't controll that. What we can do, however, is deal with the people who misuse things on a case by case basis(if even necessary).
I am not anti-relegion, I just don't think people should forcefully impose their beliefs in others.... it's called FAITH, not FORCE.
I never said I thought it should be banned, or kept under prescription. I simply refuted ZCT's arrogant and insulting position that anyone who doesnt agree must be a woman hating religious nutcase.
Personally, I like the idea of keeping it on prescription basis, but with a clear and fair set of requirements to be met before prescribing it. I DO believe that making it available over the counter is just going to encourage a lackadaisical attitude towards protection.
Now, in regards to education, I've said everything I believe in other threads, which by your comment, you obviously havent read. My position is that teaching protection as the best defense is wrong, because it also implies that its all you need. Abstinence is the only safe sex. I believe that what should be taught is a combination of abstinence is best, but IF YOU MUST then always use protection, and never rely on morning after pills, and never rely on birth control - neither of those can prevent an STD. I'm not close minded that I believe teens wont have sex if you tell them not to. I'm also not close minded enough to believe teaching a lack of sexual responsibility is acceptible.
Ah if only the world was as simple as you seem to think it is.
Let me give you an example that I am personally familiar with (the girl lived in the same dorm as my wife when we were dating):
Girl goes to a club and gets drunk. She meets a man and in her drunken and stupid state of mind she has sex with him in the alley behind the club.
The next morning she vaguely recalls details of this encounter and thinks, "crap!" So she goes to get a morning after pill and feels glad that although she made a stupid mistake she does not have to worry about what happened (in terms of pregnancy at least). She does however vow to be a lot more careful in the future.
Thankfully this happened in England to an American exchange student who was able to go and get a free morning after pill. Drugs are free to students in the UK.
Now I will bet money right now that something similar has happened to teens all over America, including cases of date rape, drugged rape, actual rape and rank stupidity.
A woman has the right to seek out a last resort method of ensuring that their misfortune or bad choices is not followed up either with a pregnancy or abortion.
The fact is that sometimes bad things happen to good people. To restrict a drug like this (and making it prescription in America is a form of restriction) does not send out an open invitation to teens to engage in promiscuous sex (puberty does that itself) it provides a safety net to protect women.
If I was so inclined I could come up with countless other scenarios that would make sense. The morning after pill is great and should be freely available to anyone over the counter. If some teens get some STDs well that's tough, they should have made better life choices. However, at least it will be just them that live with those consequences as opposed to an unwanted bastard child.
With regards to my comments that you considered so egregious I stand by them. Most people who oppose this do so on ‘moral’ grounds which are based on the fundamental principle (usually Biblical) that people should not have sex outside of marriage. There is a lot of gender discrimination in the Bible and among Christians, and those that oppose this kind of pill are often in the camp of ‘traditional values’ which is simply a nice way to describe women as a baby making machine that cooks and cleans. Such people dislike the pill and the morning after pill because it gives women more power sexually as they don’t have to worry quite so much about getting pregnant. Such liberation scares those that seek to subjugate women. Dress it up all you like but that is the bottom line. As I said before if men got pregnant this issue would have been resolved years ago. There are still health insurance companies in this country that will pay for Viagra but not birth control. Go figure.
I must say, I agree with your response much more than I did your original comment. However, I see several inherent problems with this drug being prescription only:
1. Cost - Some(probably most) women either wouldn't want to or wouldn't be able to pay to see a doctor. Be stereotypical for a moment, and try to think of the type of person would most often want to use this drug. Think they have a lot of money?
2. Shame - No woman wants to walk into a doctor's office and say "Hi! I slept with a crack-head last night!"
3. Schedule - Most people lead busy lives. They probably won't be able to set the day aside to spend in a doctors office because of something "spurr of the moment" that happened the night before.
4. Safety - The drug has no(known) ill-effects. That in itself should warrant it being over the counter. If it does not intoxicate or harm the individual, then there is no need for it to be controlled.
In conclusion, I feel it takes away from the freedom of the American people to ban OR "controll" an item that is understood to be harmless. Like I said before, ANYTHING can be misused. As long as the purpose of the drug is stated clearly, then people will understand its intended use.
As for your comments on sexual education, I agree.... as long as they are educated =)
As a recent user of the morning after pill, I feel as though I must comment. I am married, and recently we were making love and the condom broke...I went to the doctor and explained what happened, and he prescribed me the morning after pill and everything was fine. This is not an aborotion pill..it's for accidents, things like what I experienced. Or if someone was raped....If I took the precaution of using a condom, and it failed, is that being irresponsible? yes, but accidents happen. I think they should make it an OTC drug.
My other concern is with the horrible health care in the US. If we take the scenario of a teen that was date raped, or maybe got drunk and did something she shouldn't have done, this pill would allow her some piece of mind. If she goes to the doctor to get this pill it would show up on her parents insurance and she knows that will happen. So now she might choose to instead just hope that she did not get pregnant and last I heard hope does not have a high success rate.
There are some crazy overly strict parents out there and teens are afraid of them. Let's give a complete sex education and easy access to contraceptives and the morning after pill. Take a look at any of the so called liberal European countries where this happens, then compare the teen pregnancy rate per capita to the United States. The fact is our way is not working so let's try not to argue to retain the status quo. Let's figure out how and why it is working in other parts of the world and use their great ideas. Let's also use common sense and logic instead of listening to the fanatical ramblings of the moral police.
We always have a way that doesn't work but instead of changing it our officials go on 'fact finding missions' to other countries with working methods and then fiddle with our non working one to make, surprise, another non working one.
a similar experience to icechk07 with one exception. I was in a loving relationship but I was still a teen (I am still with the guy 12 years later). If my parents had found out I would have been in for it, fortunately here in AUS you can use doctors after the age of 16 without your parent finding out, but it was hard to get to a doctors at such short notice and OTC would have been much easier and less stressful.
Note the availablity or not of a morning after type pill did not come in to my contraceptive planning, and unlike some teens, I did plan, just the stupid thing broke, even though it was used properly and successfully times before and after that one occasion.
If its safe, it should be available... if a teen can buy a preg test and/or condoms why not a morning after pill for accidents or mistakes.
The argument is not that the teen can buy them, but that they should not be able to buy them willy nilly.
While many teens are responsible in their relationships, and equal number or more are not, and even those who are responsible are not always sensible.
This also includes guys as even contemporary teen males still seem to have an aversion to condoms. The old excuse that it "feels better without" (I can neither confirm or deny) still is used to try and coerce a girl into unprotected sex.
In the end its a balance between convenience for the responsible, and inconvenience for irresponsible.
So just out of interest in this utopian society that exists only in your imagination, why don't we use the same logic to make it harder for women to obtain birth control? It seems you can use all the same arguments here. Once the slutty teen girl has her pill she will be far more willing to take risks with unprotected sex. So why not just ban birth control for unmarried women? Heck why not ban condoms, after all if no contraception was available teens would probably just abstain right?
See the problem with your arguments laurisman is that you have completely ignored a variety of scenarios given in prior posts by a variety of people. Your usual closed minded attitude is again preventing you from seeing this topic for what it is.
I'm sure there are many women and teens who read these forums. I'd love to hear from a girl that uses the morning after pill as her only method of contraception. You see I don't think that such a woman would be very common at all, even if this pill was OTC. This pill is used by women the next day usually after a mistake of some kind. Your concept of keeping the process difficult and inconvenient in the hopes of imposing correct moral attitudes on teens is futile and worse your ideas if implemented would create more unwanted babies and lives would be torn apart as a result. But I guess it serves those sluts right eh?
Is this 'morning after' drug is for the morning after sex, or the morning after CONCEPTION? If it acts against conception, then it's an a·bor·ti·fa·cient -- adj. 1. Causing abortion. --a·bor·ti·fa·cient n. A substance or device used to induce abortion. Considering the character of the pharmaceutical industry overall, I'll wager these MA pills are designed to be abortifacients and not barriers to sperm reaching ova - truly preventative.
If it is an abortifacient, then it's not safe for the just conceived infant!
There are no unwanted children. Adoptive parents await every child conceived, regardless of circumstances! There await adoptive patents even for AIDS victims, those with Down Syndrome, and EVERY POSSIBLE supposed basis for rejection! You who oppose this on the basis of preventing 'bastard' children are ignorant of the facts, but are eager to believe silly falsehooods. Illegitimate children do not exist, only illegitimate parents, married or not!
It is perfectly obvious that this pill does not protect women or even men, it only shields them from their duty to be fully responsible. True safety is protecting women from even the desire to obtain these pills. Such safety is available only by abstinence, as lauriesman and others have stated.
Emergency contraception (morning after pill) is not abortion: in fact, emergency contraception—like regular birth control pills—is not effective if pregnancy has already occurred.
It's easy for a fat ugly old man with a moustache to sit and lecture women about responsibility. But I doubt you will ever go though the pain of child birth or know what it is like to carry an unwanted child for nine months only to give it up. People like you make me sick. You have no right to tell women everywhere that they should suffer an unwanted childbirth just because you think it is their ‘responsibility.’
Actually, he does have that right, freedom of speech you know. Of course, I realise in your anarchistic world, that only applies to people who agree with you.
Of course, in this litigatious age we dont need personal responsibility anymore, do we, ZCT? We can just sue whoever caused us harm.
We've created a culture where you rule is do what you want, and if something goes wrong, well sue someone, or blame someelse. It's never our fault.
People want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to **** like bunnies and not have to worry about issues like STD's and pregnancy - well I'm sorry, but life doesn't work that way. Nor should it.
Personal responsibility, ZCT, accept the consequences of your actions, or don't do them at all. It's what we should be teaching our kids.
"So just out of interest in this utopian society that exists only in your imagination"
It's an ideal, that should be striven for, just because it doesn't exist now doesn't mean we should strive for it.
" why don't we use the same logic to make it harder for women to obtain birth control?"
BC is already prescription only.
"It seems you can use all the same arguments here. Once the slutty teen girl has her pill she will be far more willing to take risks with unprotected sex. So why not just ban birth control for unmarried women? Heck why not ban condoms, after all if no contraception was available teens would probably just abstain right?"
You still fail to grasp the very simple difference between "restriction" and "ban" - Of course, this is just somethign we've all grown to expect from you.
There is nothing wrong with BC in cases that warrant it, and a morning after pill is a good thing for rape victims, say. However, encouraging its use in any situation that someone wants to avoid the personal responsibility associated with their actions, is IMO wrong.
"See the problem with your arguments laurisman is that you have completely ignored a variety of scenarios given in prior posts by a variety of people."
No, I haven't ignored them, I just don't consider them an acceptable excuse.
"Your usual closed minded attitude is again preventing you from seeing this topic for what it is."
Nope, I see it for what it is, but then, you don't even read what I write, much less attempt to understand my point of view. ZCT, of the posters on here, you are one of the most prejudiced, and close minded. While I try to see both sides of the issue, you only ever see one, and woe betide someone who doesnt agree with you - because you, ZCT, are always right, 100%, without fail.
Guess what? Sex leads to pregnancy. If you dont want to get pregnant, you shouldn't be having sex. If you want to have sex, then you have to accept responsibility that pregnancy might result. You can use condoms, you can use birth control, you can use morning after pills, but nothing is a 100% guarantee you will not end up with a bun in the oven.
Now I'm all for providing options in situations where personal responsibility is not the issue - rape for example. However, I believe its time to stop giving people ways to abdicate from responsibility.
“Actually, he does have that right, freedom of speech you know. Of course, I realise in your anarchistic world, that only applies to people who agree with you.”
- I am all for free speech and lack of censorship. I think you know very well that I was looking for more of an intelligent answer than, “I’ll say want I want because I can.”
”Of course, in this litigatious age we dont need personal responsibility anymore, do we, ZCT? We can just sue whoever caused us harm.”
- Not sure quite where that came from, you almost seem to be accusing me of creating the aforementioned society. I’m not a lawyer you know. I don’t agree with frivolous lawsuits any more than you do.
”We've created a culture where you rule is do what you want, and if something goes wrong, well sue someone, or blame someelse. It's never our fault.”
- Well I’m sorry we no longer live in a culture where we take and eye for an eye and stone prostitutes but things change. Again, not sure where you are going with this one.
”People want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to **** like bunnies and not have to worry about issues like STD's and pregnancy - well I'm sorry, but life doesn't work that way. Nor should it.”
- As I see your posts about sex I find it more and more amusing to see the resentment you have to the normal majority who have healthy sexual relations in loving relationships. You seem to ooze a bitter resentment towards them almost as if you regret your self-imposed vow of premarital chastity. But again your comments seem at odds with the real world, one in which people make mistakes. All I am saying is that if there is a simple and reasonably safe method of correcting such a mistake, then people should do so. If I accidentally burn myself when cooking I don’t continue to hold my hand in the heat to teach myself a lesson about personal responsibility and consequences. Even your own savior, Jesus, met with those that had taken a wrong turn along life’s path.
I am not going to repeat the litany of examples I have already given regarding this situation since you clearly cannot accept that you might be wrong on this. But please read some previous posts by me and others that show some clear examples of where mistakes happen, and the morning after pill would be a good option.
”Personal responsibility, ZCT, accept the consequences of your actions, or don't do them at all. It's what we should be teaching our kids.”
- I shudder to think that one day you may actually have kids and treat them this way. But I wonder if your daughter is raped would you be so quick to tell her to have the baby and live with life’s consequences? How about if she gets drunk one night and someone takes advantage of her? What we actually need to be teaching our kids is how to make sensible life choices but at the same time remain mindful of the fact that people make mistakes. I’d like to think that if something happened to my daughter she would feel comfortable to approach me and seek my help and guidance. The way you post it seems as if your daughter would be too afraid to tell you the truth for fear you would judge them and force them to live with the consequences of their actions rather than seeking a practical solution. Such fear is always counterproductive in a parent-child relationship.
I hope that before you have children you learn a little more about life.
"I shudder to think that one day you may actually have kids and treat them this way."
Why - teaching your child to be responsible for their actions is essential IMO.
"But I wonder if your daughter is raped would you be so quick to tell her to have the baby and live with life’s consequences?"
I see you totally skipped the two instances where I said that rape would be an acceptable reason for proscribing a morning after pill. Like I said, you never read what I write, I think you read like the first half of the sentence and fill in the rest from your own prejudiced stereotypical view of people who dont agree with you.
"How about if she gets drunk one night and someone takes advantage of her?"
Thats rape.
"What we actually need to be teaching our kids is how to make sensible life choices but at the same time remain mindful of the fact that people make mistakes."
Yes, people make mistakes, adn they never learn from them if they dont have to deal with the consequences. You put your hand on a hotplate, you get burned, the burn reminds you not to do it again.
"I’d like to think that if something happened to my daughter she would feel comfortable to approach me and seek my help and guidance."
I'd be skeptical that anything you told her would do her any good.
"The way you post it seems as if your daughter would be too afraid to tell you the truth for fear you would judge them and force them to live with the consequences of their actions rather than seeking a practical solution."
There is a difference between love and fear, and while I would love my daughter, and only want the best for her, I would have brought her up to be aware of the need for personal responsibility. She would be aware that sexual intercourse always carries a risk of pregnancy and aids, and make her choices with a mature understanding of the consequences of her actions.
She would also know that if she did make a mistake, that her mother and I would do our best to ensure it did not ruin her life. If necessary, she would be able to see a doctor, and get the prescription filled.
The error in your logic, ZCT is that you assume she would come to you, isntead of just going to the pharmacy, purchasing the OCT morning after pill, and carrying on the same way.
I hope that you learn to open your eyes to both sides of an issue, and realise that you're a misguided bigot who presumes too much apon the character of others, and refuses to read what they post before jumping in with inane and irrelevant responses. I don't think it will ever happen, but we all need dreams.
“It's an ideal, that should be striven for, just because it doesn't exist now doesn't mean we should strive for it.”
- The problem with a utopian society is they don’t exist. One man’s utopia is another man’s hell.
”You still fail to grasp the very simple difference between "restriction" and "ban" - Of course, this is just somethign we've all grown to expect from you.”
- I don’t think there is anything you have ever written that I have failed to grasp. Frankly I don’t think you have the capacity to confound me in that way. And with all respect, please don’t try to imply that you speak for everyone on this site.
”However, encouraging its use in any situation that someone wants to avoid the personal responsibility associated with their actions, is IMO wrong.”
- Making something freely available is not really encouraging its’ use. Walgreens sells enema kits. Does this mean that they are encouraging people to have daily enemas?
”No, I haven't ignored them, I just don't consider them an acceptable excuse.”
- Your acceptance of real life scenarios thankfully is not a prerequisite for their validity.
”Nope, I see it for what it is, but then, you don't even read what I write, much less attempt to understand my point of view.”
- Sorry to burst your bubble, but I believe I am right in saying I have read every single post you have written to me, sometimes more than once.
“ZCT, of the posters on here, you are one of the most prejudiced, and close minded. While I try to see both sides of the issue, you only ever see one…”
- You are confusing strong opinions with prejudice. I am always open to a sensible point of view. Frankly your posts do not reflect a person willing to look at alternative viewpoints.
“…and woe betide someone who doesnt agree with you - because you, ZCT, are always right, 100%, without fail.”
- See we can agree on some things.
”Guess what? Sex leads to pregnancy. If you dont want to get pregnant, you shouldn't be having sex. If you want to have sex, then you have to accept responsibility that pregnancy might result. You can use condoms, you can use birth control, you can use morning after pills, but nothing is a 100% guarantee you will not end up with a bun in the oven.”
- Maybe once you’ve actually had sex you will be less afraid of it and can speak about it in a more rational way. The major problem I have with your completely tired arguments about personal responsibility is that it is in almost every single case the woman who must suffer. Some girl with a limited sexual knowledge goes to college for the first time and one day gets drunk, has sex and gets pregnant. We can play the blame game all day long, but if she had easy access to the morning after pill the scenario is a whole lot more pleasant. I am also pretty certain that most women who go though a scenario like the one I described are not going to be in any hurry to repeat it. This mistake will serve as a wake up call and she will probably become a lot more careful without having to ruin her life with an unwanted baby.
”Now I'm all for providing options in situations where personal responsibility is not the issue - rape for example. However, I believe its time to stop giving people ways to abdicate from responsibility.”
- Again that’s rather easy for a man to say, and this is why I am particularly opposed to your opinion. In this example you are again advocating that a woman must suffer for the mistakes of two people. I just don’t think that any man has the right to make these decisions about women’s bodies. It’s so easy for a man to say, “ah well she should have thought of that before having sex.” But as I have pointed out to you repeatedly it is not always that simple, and it is not the man that is going to go though the physical and mental hell of an unwanted pregnancy. With the consequences so severe for women, it is they who should be deciding this issue.
“Why - teaching your child to be responsible for their actions is essential IMO.”
- Absolutely. However telling a child it is tough luck that they got pregnant is not much help.
”Thats rape.”
- Not really the example I gave happens all the time in the real world. Persuading a girl to have sex when both parties are drunk is not rape. It’s only rape if one party indicates that they do not wish to have sex.
”I'd be skeptical that anything you told her would do her any good.”
- Is this the example of how to be open minded and capable of viewing every issue from both sides?
”There is a difference between love and fear, and while I would love my daughter, and only want the best for her, I would have brought her up to be aware of the need for personal responsibility.”
- Well any good parent would do that.
“She would be aware that sexual intercourse always carries a risk of pregnancy and aids, and make her choices with a mature understanding of the consequences of her actions.”
- This one made me smile. Perhaps some parents could post on this one. With the best will in the world children do stupid things. They drink, smoke pot, make bad decisions. This is why we don’t let young people vote or drive. You can be the best father in the world but one day your little darling may go to a frat party and sleep with someone and regret it the next day. The more rigid your upbringing and the more you tell them not to, the more likely they are to rebel. Do you really think that every teen that has sex has bad parents?
”She would also know that if she did make a mistake, that her mother and I would do our best to ensure it did not ruin her life. If necessary, she would be able to see a doctor, and get the prescription filled.”
- That’s great, unless of course she fears your reaction and takes too long to tell you.
”The error in your logic, ZCT is that you assume she would come to you, isntead of just going to the pharmacy, purchasing the OCT morning after pill, and carrying on the same way.”
- Well unless she has a significantly lower IQ than my wife and I, I somehow doubt that she would be that stupid. But then you never can tell. I don’t even have a child yet and neither do you. But if that easy availability of the morning after pill was what it took to save her from ruining her life with an unwanted child then so be it. I’m fine with it. Clearly I would not support her actions if she was that stupid and irresponsible, but it’s still better than pregnancy.
”I hope that you learn to open your eyes to both sides of an issue, and realise that you're a misguided bigot who presumes too much apon the character of others, and refuses to read what they post before jumping in with inane and irrelevant responses. I don't think it will ever happen, but we all need dreams.”
- In psychological terms I believe this is called projecting. You are trying to pretend that your flaws are in fact my flaws. As I said earlier I read all of your posts, spelling mistakes and all, and responded to what you said. I did not gloss over anything. If you believe that my responses are inanes and irrelevant it is you who have the problem understanding an opposing point of view. Next time you dare to try and imply you are some open minded and enlightened individual go back and read your post and think again.
I think I'm done posting on this one Laurie, I'll leave the last word to you.
To the best of my knowledge, the reason some drugs require a medical perscription is because of the adverse physical effects it could have on the user. A doctor's examination determines if if it is safe for a specific individual to take a specific medication, before he authorizes it.
Any medication that has none, or minimal, potential adverse side effects should be available OTC.
The quoted article states; "Neither side questions the safety of the drug ..."
THEREFORE, these is no reason to require a perscription for ANY drug that has no harmful medical side effects.
The only government regulations that may be considered are those against false advertising claims.
And even then, "Let the buyer beware."
Like most of you , spam mail offers me OTC formulas to increase my bust size or my penis size. If I bought all of them, I would be wearing a 58" M cup bra and dragging an eight foot penis behind me.
Now if you really want to require a perscription for something to protect teenagers, ............
*Note that this rant has nothing to do with the morning after pill, I totaly believe it should OTC (See previous post) =)
Your comment:
"it is not the man that is going to go though the physical and mental hell of an unwanted pregnancy. "
YES IT IS, I have seen many men go through more suffering over unwanted pregnancies than you can imagine. The first 9 months are a trivial beginning for the REST OF THE MAN'S life. My brother's got a woman pregnant, and she didn't tell him for six months that she was pregnant. My brother was so depressed, his entire life plans are shot down the tube (and they were big)I had never in my life seen him in more anguish. He said if it weren't for concern for his baby, he might have killed himself. (You'd have to know more about the situation) Now she and the child own him for the rest of his life. She chose his life for him. He almost went crazy. But in the end, he accepted responsibility, and makes a great father. He now LOVES that child to death. Her nine months of suffering is over now, but she has determined the rest of his life. Why do people feel that fathers should have no rights? Because of the first nine months? That's trivial compared to 18 years! It is such a complicated situation, though, and I don't know of a good answer to the problem. A man shouldn't be able (of course) to force his girlfriend/wife to have an abortion. But she can destroy what is his child also if she chooses, because for NINE months its in her. That's bullshit. If a man is just as responsible for the child as the woman, he should have many more rights.
Yeah what smack said. Even if the man wants the child the first nine months can be pretty bad for him as well. Oh yeah.
"Common side effects include nausea, vomiting, lower abdominal pain, fatigue, headache, breast tenderness, and menstrual changes.
Approximately 50% of women who use an estrogen/progestin morning after pill get nauseated and 20% vomit. The side effects are less in the progestin-only morning after pill. The morning after pill should not be used by women who are pregnant, by woman with undiagnosed vaginal bleeding, or by women with an allergy to the product."
Now it says it shouldn't be used while pregnant. Wouldn't it be best to make sure they were not pregnent and didn't know it? It happens. You make it sound like they are wanting to ban it, hell you have even stated that outright, but all they want to do is keep it prescription based. Does that make it impossible to get? Absolutely not. Does it make it a little harder? Yeah, and it probably should. I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to get it I'm saying that maybe it shouldn't be so easy. Maybe they need to think about it some more.
