This Really Should Not Be An Issue
Jan. 16th, 2005 07:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desertvixenMore political/social ranting ahead. Enclosed in a LJ-Cut to protect those who come here to avoid the politics....
Briefly: the morning-after pill and the attempt to keep it prescription. The actual article parts are bolded, edited for conciseness.
FDA Set to Decide on Morning-After Pill
WASHINGTON - The government is considering whether to make morning-after birth control available without a prescription, and like most issues that involve sex and pregnancy, it has generated heated debate.
Thank you for that incredible understatement.
Fierce arguments have gone on inside and outside the Food and Drug Administration, which may decide as soon as this week whether drug stores can sell the emergency contraception known as Plan B without a prescription to women age 16 and older.
Each side accuses the other of manipulating science for political purpose.
Plan B supporters say the pill is a safe way to prevent thousands of unwanted pregnancies and the abortions that sometimes follow. Making the contraception available over the counter, they say, is crucial for women who might need the protection over a weekend or when it is difficult to obtain a prescription.
Plan B can prevent pregnancy for up to 72 hours after sex. The sooner the pill is taken, the more effective it is.
"Women's reproductive rights shouldn't hinge on someone else's schedule. We should have this at our fingertips. It should be next to condoms in drug stores," said Kelly Mangan, 22, president of the University of Florida's chapter of the National Organization for Women. She was arrested this month in a protest outside the FDA's headquarters in suburban Maryland.
Amen, sister. Although I would point out that there is such a thing as Planned Parenthood and birth control that one takes daily, if one has already decided that abstinence is not happening.
Opponents worry that the drug encourages women — teenagers in particular — to have risky sex. If over-the-counter sales are permitted, older teenagers or adults might buy the pills for some of their younger friends or their sexual partners, critics say.
"It encourages risky sexual activity with the promise `just pop a pill in the morning and you don't need to worry about pregnancy,'" said Wendy Wright of Concerned Women of America, a conservative group that focuses on social issues.
"What we're concerned about is a number of young people who are not engaged in sexual activity who feel tremendous pressure, and this will only add to the pressure that is on them," Wright said.
I'm not buying this. Women are smarter than this. Being on birth control didn't make me "easy". It didn't increase the pressure on me to be sexually active. If we taught our daughters to believe in themselves, and not be swayed by desiring the approval of teenage males, *that* would do nice things for the rate of teen sexual activity.
Not contested, by either side, is that the drug is drug is safe or effective. Some who work for the FDA believed that questions about people's sexual behavior were overwhelming scientific ones, according to an internal agency memo written last year.
"Some staff have expressed the concern that this decision is based on non-medical implications of teen sexual behavior, or judgments about the propriety of this activity," said the memo by the FDA's acting drug chief, Dr. Steven Galson.
You think? /sarcasm.
The FDA said it worried that there was not enough data about the pill's use by young teenagers. The agency promised to reconsider if the pill's manufacturer, Barr Laboratories of Pomona, N.Y., figured out how to sell over the counter only to those 16 and older.
In July, Barr again applied for approval. The company now proposes that drug stores check customers' ages to be certain that buyers are at least 16, an approach the FDA has not approved before. Younger teenagers could continue to get the drug with a doctor's prescription.
Makes sense to me. I'm sure some people will lie about it, but come on, it's not like people don't lie now to get cigarettes and alcohol.
"In this case, there is no medical dispute," the wrote. "Rather, the delay results from the concern of some groups ... that the availability of the drug may have a corrupting influence on sexual behavior. If easy access to the drug could have such an influence, it would seem that the battle had already been lost."
I have a news flash here: making the pill unavailable is not going to somehow save morals in America. Teens are going to have sex. Ideally, they're going to do it with protection, but... yeah. Not an ideal world, last time I checked.
DV
Briefly: the morning-after pill and the attempt to keep it prescription. The actual article parts are bolded, edited for conciseness.
FDA Set to Decide on Morning-After Pill
WASHINGTON - The government is considering whether to make morning-after birth control available without a prescription, and like most issues that involve sex and pregnancy, it has generated heated debate.
Thank you for that incredible understatement.
Fierce arguments have gone on inside and outside the Food and Drug Administration, which may decide as soon as this week whether drug stores can sell the emergency contraception known as Plan B without a prescription to women age 16 and older.
Each side accuses the other of manipulating science for political purpose.
Plan B supporters say the pill is a safe way to prevent thousands of unwanted pregnancies and the abortions that sometimes follow. Making the contraception available over the counter, they say, is crucial for women who might need the protection over a weekend or when it is difficult to obtain a prescription.
Plan B can prevent pregnancy for up to 72 hours after sex. The sooner the pill is taken, the more effective it is.
"Women's reproductive rights shouldn't hinge on someone else's schedule. We should have this at our fingertips. It should be next to condoms in drug stores," said Kelly Mangan, 22, president of the University of Florida's chapter of the National Organization for Women. She was arrested this month in a protest outside the FDA's headquarters in suburban Maryland.
Amen, sister. Although I would point out that there is such a thing as Planned Parenthood and birth control that one takes daily, if one has already decided that abstinence is not happening.
Opponents worry that the drug encourages women — teenagers in particular — to have risky sex. If over-the-counter sales are permitted, older teenagers or adults might buy the pills for some of their younger friends or their sexual partners, critics say.
"It encourages risky sexual activity with the promise `just pop a pill in the morning and you don't need to worry about pregnancy,'" said Wendy Wright of Concerned Women of America, a conservative group that focuses on social issues.
"What we're concerned about is a number of young people who are not engaged in sexual activity who feel tremendous pressure, and this will only add to the pressure that is on them," Wright said.
I'm not buying this. Women are smarter than this. Being on birth control didn't make me "easy". It didn't increase the pressure on me to be sexually active. If we taught our daughters to believe in themselves, and not be swayed by desiring the approval of teenage males, *that* would do nice things for the rate of teen sexual activity.
Not contested, by either side, is that the drug is drug is safe or effective. Some who work for the FDA believed that questions about people's sexual behavior were overwhelming scientific ones, according to an internal agency memo written last year.
"Some staff have expressed the concern that this decision is based on non-medical implications of teen sexual behavior, or judgments about the propriety of this activity," said the memo by the FDA's acting drug chief, Dr. Steven Galson.
You think? /sarcasm.
The FDA said it worried that there was not enough data about the pill's use by young teenagers. The agency promised to reconsider if the pill's manufacturer, Barr Laboratories of Pomona, N.Y., figured out how to sell over the counter only to those 16 and older.
In July, Barr again applied for approval. The company now proposes that drug stores check customers' ages to be certain that buyers are at least 16, an approach the FDA has not approved before. Younger teenagers could continue to get the drug with a doctor's prescription.
Makes sense to me. I'm sure some people will lie about it, but come on, it's not like people don't lie now to get cigarettes and alcohol.
"In this case, there is no medical dispute," the wrote. "Rather, the delay results from the concern of some groups ... that the availability of the drug may have a corrupting influence on sexual behavior. If easy access to the drug could have such an influence, it would seem that the battle had already been lost."
I have a news flash here: making the pill unavailable is not going to somehow save morals in America. Teens are going to have sex. Ideally, they're going to do it with protection, but... yeah. Not an ideal world, last time I checked.
DV
