Posted on 08/24/2006 7:03:11 PM PDT by Nextrush
The Food and Drug Administration Thursday approved nonprescription sales of emergency contraception to women 18 and over, capping a long, tortuous saga about public health, politics and morality..........
Over-the-counter Plan B will be only in pharmacies, only from pharmacists, only to women with proof of age.......
Reaction was swift and polarized.
Women's health advocates and medical organizations had endorsed Barr's original 2003 application for over-the-counter sales without an age restriction. Thursday they applauded the FDA's ruling, but said it was long overdue, unneccessarily restrictive, and shaped by political pressure.......
Conservative political and religious groups decried the FDA's decision, contending that easier access.....will increase promiscuity, sexually-transmitted disease, and give rapists a way to eliminate evidence.......
Some anti-abortion groups also denounced Plan B as an abortion pill........
"It is no secret that Plan B is a deadly drug that.....can act to take the life of newly conceived babies in the days immediately following fertilization," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League........
the FDA delayed a decision.
That, in turn, infuriated U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Hillary Clinton, Democrats from Washington and New York repsectively, who blocked a confirmation vote on former FDA commissioner Lester Crawford until he promised quick action on Plan B.
He abruptly quit last Septmeber-without taking action.
Thursday, in a deja vu moment, Murray and Clinton said they would no longer block a confirmation vote on Crawford's replacment, acting FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach...........
(Excerpt) Read more at grandforksherald.com ...
Plan b can cause an abortion, just as contraceptives can and do cause abortions. That is, for those who believe that preventing implantation is an abortion, as opposed to removal of an implanted embryo.
If an embryo never implants, it will never be viable. There are women who have problems with implantation who spend years trying to "get pregnant", and unknowingly lose many embryos. In-vitro fertilization involves injecting embryos, some of which don't implant. I don't mind that some people would call both of these things "abortions", but I do think that it prevents us from drawing a useful distinction and makes it harder to argue against procedural abortions and chemical post-implantation abortions, which many think are the real problem.
Some people just don't agree there is a difference between the two, and I haven't been able to bridge that gap with any degree of understanding between our positions.
Plan B isn't standard for rape victims, but we do offer it upon request, and SAR nurses often times will remind a girl who's been raped that it exists and is available.
Bingo
I think this can alleviate the abortion for rape victims that everyone pulls out of their "examples" of why abortion should be kept legal. But let's be honest, this isn't going to stop abortions. This only works seriously the next day - after that it just makes you sick (is my understanding).
If you can't avoid getting pregnant in the first place - in all liklihood you're not going to go the next morning to the drug store to get this over the counter medicine.
And "The Pill" is capable of doing the same thing as Plan B, destroying human life in some cases.
The Catholic Church opposed the pill because of the sanctity of human life. The Papal encyclicals against it are encyclicals dealing with "human life."
I always listened to the media rail on about the church opposing "the Pill" back when I was a child.
I wasn't Catholic and didn't understand.
Now as an adult I've learned more about these issues and fully understand how harmful the Pill and Plan B can be.
This is not abortion, it is birth control. My wife an I have two children. It would have been possible to have many more however, we choose to prevent that from happening. I do not think we age guilty of abortion.
The Pill can destroy human life after conception and so can Plan B. I emphaszie can, it doesn't in all cases.
Its about the sanctity of human life and that's why the Catholic Church is against "the Pill." Because there is the chance that human life can be destroyed after conception.
Planned Parenthood has always loved to call abortion "birth control" and that line doesn't hold water in this debate.
Several years ago he was telling me that as a standard part of the medical examination, the victim is offered a pill that was essentially a large dose of what's in a standard birth control pill. This would prevent pregnancy, but in there rare case that there actually was fertilization, it would abort the pregnancy. My understanding is that it had to be done soon after the rape, a day or two at the most, or it might not work.
Sheesh.
the trial lawyers will take care of this problem - its just a matter of time before there are medical complications surrounding the use of this drug. I predict there will be class action suits, and that within 3 years - the drug will be taken off the market.
Another law to benefit primarily the irresponsible and thoughtless - and the slide continues.....
Not entirely accurate. They are against ALL forms of birth control regardless of the method.
I guess it is too much to expect that Hillary would insist girls keep their legs together when she doesn't say a word when her husband won't--and she gets campaign funding from those who make money killing babies.
I guess it is too much to expect that males protect and provide for the children they help procreate.
I guess it is too much for girls to expect that there are males out there who will protect them and provide for them and marry them before sex. But girls--there are such men and I'm one of them.
I am deeply disappointed with Mr. Bush. "Like a muddied fountain and a polluted spring is a righteous man who yields, falls down, and compromises his integrity before the wicked." Proverbs 25:26
I guess I'll quit ranting now and ask God to have mercy on this Nation.
"No doubt, love, bust as long as people are still having promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners while at the same time experimenting with mind-expanding drugs in a consequence-free environment, I'll be sound as a pound!"
the Church is against all forms of artificial birth control -- the Church supports natural birth control - NFP
Us morons take exception to your remark.
so an abortion 3-4 weeks earlier is more acceptable? You're just moving the abortion room to the pharmacy counter
Taken daily in small doses the birth control prevent ovulation and therefore fertilization. Taken once in a larger dose, the same pill causes a hostile uterine environemnt to prevent implantation of a fertilized egg/embryo. Big difference.
Even without the pro life arguement, which I personally believe takes precedence, I am still against plan B otc. The need for plan B admits unprotected sex. Where is the counselling on STD's, how to prevent them, getting the person on a regular prevention form of birth control rather than an after the fact "emergency" contraception?
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