US Victory for Plan B!

[jadecat]

At long last!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14497678/

FDA OKs nonprescription ‘morning-after’ pill
Decision allows over-the-counter sale of Plan B for those 18 or older

Updated: 11:02 a.m. ET Aug. 24, 2006

WASHINGTON - Women may buy the morning-after pill without a prescription — but only with proof they’re 18 or older, federal health officials ruled Thursday, capping a contentious three-year effort to ease access to the emergency contraceptive.


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I'm more than a little on the Pro-Choice side of things- for those that didn't know. To mis-quote a familiar line- let's have every child be a wanted child. So along those lines, I think this is very good news for American women.

Comments

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

RU-486 and Plan B are totally different things. :) RU-486 can be used for longer as it is an actual abortificant. Plan B is a mega-high dosage of hormonal birth control pills that is only really effective for 72 hours post sexual encounter.

The goal of Plan B is to a- prevent ovulation, b- alter mucus in the fallopian tubes so that should an egg be released the odds of it meeting sperm are greatly reduced, and c- should a and b fail, and an egg is fertilized the final step is to thin the uterine lining; giving the fertilized egg no where to implant.

However, if a woman is pregnant when she takes Plan B it will not harm the developing fetus and odds are it will not cause a miscarriage. RU-486 is usable for weeks and WILL cause a miscarriage if the woman is pregnant.


I strongly believe in birth control, for many of the same reasons you do. Plus- there are some people who just really don't want children. Some people just don't like them. So for those people- who don't necessarily want to under go surgery (or for whom getting someone to perform the surgery is really difficult) I like that they have more options.

[jaklumen.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info!

I see why Plan B is called the 'morning after' pill, now. If it's classified as birth control, I see that much more justification for it. It's still preventive, even if it is after intercourse.

More options is good.

I think the opponents are afraid this encourages promiscuity among unwed teenage and young adult women-- they might try to pass it off as abortion, but the more intellectual will use it as argument against birth control, more especially when they try to push abstinence.

But on the other hand, what ever happened to inhibin? Why do women have to do everything for birth control? After this next child is born, I'd like to have an option that *I* can do. I'm not sure about surgery, so this would be nice and I can't recall if male birth control is even really available.

[jadecat.livejournal.com]

Young people are going to have sex no matter what. Hell, most of them think that whatever is out there (AIDS, herpes, etc) that it won't happen to them. So they will be careless. I don't know how many times in one of the women's communities here that I read some girl writing 'so last night the boy and I had sex, but he pulled out before he came, but I know pre-cum can still have sperm...' or 'we had sex without a condom (stupid I know!) and...' These are the people who do need to have Plan B available.

I don't know anything about Inhibin, so I can't help you there. I would like to see more options for men- but with things like Viagra taking the fore it seems more like the research is going to helping men get it up and not birth control.

"This next child" are you and the wife expecting another one?

[jaklumen.livejournal.com]

"This next child" are you and the wife expecting another one?

Yes'm.