US OKs wider access for Barr 'morning-after' pill (Bush Adminstration Betrays Social Conservatives)

Reuters ^ | 8/24/2006 | n/a

[Pyro7480]

US OKs wider access for Barr 'morning-after' pill

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BRL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) won U.S. approval to sell its Plan B "morning-after" contraceptive without a prescription to women 18 and older, the company said on Thursday.

Younger girls still need a prescription for Plan B, the company said in a statement. The Plan B pills may prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse.

[markomalley]

I consider oral contraceptives, norplant, etc. to be potential abortifacients (if they fail in the actions of preventing ovulation or preventing fertilization) and I consider an IUD to be about as ethical as sticking a coat hangar you-know-where (sorry about it being graphic).

[Global2010]

I do believe life starts at conception.

Sperm enters egg and the life developement begins.

[Global2010]

IUD feels like having a coat hanger.....

[dsc]

"The EC pill is not a chemical abortion, it prevents implantation similar to an IUD's secondary funtion. This will reduce the number of abortions in America, which I thought was the goal of the Religious Right (guess I was mistaken)."

Life begins at conception. To prevent implantation is to kill an innocent human being.

[Luircin]

This pill does nothing more than normal every day oral contraceptives do to prevent pregnancies. If you are 'OK' with birth control pills then there should be no objection to this method, which is already legally available. If you are opposed to all forms of contraception then please, rant-on. But please, take the time to know the facts before you do so.

Very well. Serves me right again. Just color me so tired of knee-jerk "betrayal" shouting that my knee jerked before I cooled down enough to look at all the facts. (And substituted an entirely unrelated word too. How embarrassing)

[Lunatic Fringe]

Life begins at conception. To prevent implantation is to kill an innocent human being.

Wrong, and wrong. Don't flaunt your ignorance.

[Scholastic]

What a baby killer is right. Im so glad I voted for Peroutka. Thanks much for the post.

[Scholastic]

With all due respect, life beings at conception. The IUD and EC both do prevent implantation, which prevents the new-conceived human from attaching itself to his mother's wall, and thus he or she dies. The birth control pill, the IUD, and even EC have this "back up" function -- they do more than just prevent ovulation or conception. They are abortions causing drugs/devices.

And Bush, who is head of the executive branch, is responsible for the decisions that come out of it. The career bureaucrats at the FDA are extra-constitutional. They answer to him, not the other way around. His comments supporting this decision at best show a disregard for the facts of what EC is, or at best, his recklessness for not knowing the facts of what his own administration is doing.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Again, the Religious Right will classify this as "abortion" in order to keep their members in camp. It is not abortion. An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, and there is no pregnancy to terminate.

I disagree with the belief that life begins at conception. Medically, there is no evidence of this. A zygote (fertilized egg) is merely the organic chemicals neccessary to develop into an embryo.

And Bush is not responsible for this. The FDA Committee members, while appointed by the President, are there to make the best MEDICAL decision, not the best social decision. I don't want them running to the President to get the "OK" on drug approval.

[markomalley]

I disagree with the belief that life begins at conception.

Thank you.

[Scholastic]

"I disagree with the belief that life begins at conception. Medically, there is no evidence of this. A zygote (fertilized egg) is merely the organic chemicals neccessary to develop into an embryo. "

So if someone would have killed my zygote (fertilized egg), where would I be? Would I still be here? Life begins at conception. "Plan B" or EC is an abortafacient.

Indeed the FDA is there to make medical decisions, but that cant be seperated from medical ethics and respect for life. That is the very purpose of medicine. The president has a 5th Amendment obligation to ensure respect for life from the executive branch of the federal government. He is responsible.

[Lunatic Fringe]

So if someone would have killed my zygote (fertilized egg), where would I be? Would I still be here?

I'll go one step further... what if the sperm on the night you were conceived were killed with spermicide? Would you be here? Nope. But sperm is not life. And neither is a zygote.

[mother22wife21]

Thank you for this post. I also believe that BC,IUDs,patches etc are abortificants.

As a young woman, I believed the talk about prevention of pregnancy. I was stunned, and shed tears at the possibility that I had aborted my babies while taking this medication. I felt incredibly foolish when I learned ALL the ways BC pills rendered conception nonviable.

[CottonBall]

It's like shooting a gun into a room, not knowing if anyone is in the room. If you hit someone, it could be viewed as some form of reckless homicide rather than intentional murder.

But isn't the law on killing someone based on the intent of the murderer? With this pill, the intent is to kill an embryo, should it exist. If someone shot randomly into a room, intending to kill whoever was in there, that might be construed as 1st degree murder (intentional and planned) or at least 2nd degree murder (intentional, but not planned).The means of the murder (someone is a bad shot or planned it in a stupid way) wouldn't change the charge.

BTW, Very interesting theory you've come up with!

[Lunatic Fringe]

So if someone would have killed my zygote (fertilized egg), where would I be? Would I still be here?

In addition, I do not believe life is "created". Homo sapiens "life" has been continuous for over 200,000 years, passed along in a long series of complex chemical interactions.

[mother22wife21]

"what if the sperm on the night you were conceived were killed with spermicide? Would you be here? Nope."

Is Plan B a spemicide? Because what you say is true. If the sperm were rendered useless by a spermicide, then no conception would take place.

[mother22wife21]

spemicide=spermicide

[Lunatic Fringe]

With this pill, the intent is to kill an embryo, should it exist.

Wrong. The intent is to prevent pregnancy. Zygotes will fail to implant for LOTS of reasons. One in five pregnancies end in miscarriage.

I just don't believe it's human life until it is a fetus.

[Lunatic Fringe]

And that's what people forget. Plan B's primary goal is prevent conception by flooding the body with hormones and stopping ovulation. Then it tries to prevent conception if an egg is already released. And finally if conception does occur after all that, then it prevents implantation.

I just can't see how the extreme Pro-Lifers see this as another form of abortion.

[stands2reason]

I'm pro-life, but I'll allow the morning after pill for rape victims. I'd not sold on it in general though.

I believe pregnancy = implantation.

I am against all surgical abortions, except in an immediate life or death situation.