After three years of jerking around (off?), the FDA may finally approve Plan B for over-the-counter sales. Of course, this is what happened last year when Dr. Lester Crawford was seeking Senate approval for his nomination to serve as commissioner of the FDA. After he was approved, the Plan B approval was jettisoned. Guess what? A new guy, who was appointed acting is now seeking approval. Coincidence? Even if this is not just a ploy (someone nominated by the Bush administration involved in ploys? Never!), and overlooking the fact that the plan calls for the drug to be made available OTC only to women over 18 who have photo ID to prove their age, and that it will be held under lock and key behind the pharmacy counter, now we just have to jump the next hurdle and get pharmacies to stock it in the first place.
While I was at BlogHer this past weekend, I had a great conversation with Arse Poetica (who is the best and who I forgot to mention in my recap highlights because I am a total douche bag) about the anti-choice terrorists that stop people from accessing reproductive health care or even publicly admitting that we support it because we are afraid they will show up at our homes and demonstrate their love of life and liberty by killing us. Anyway, the newest shenanigans (a word I use liberally) these religious terrorists are pulling involves pressuring pharmacies to not stock emergency contraceptive or even birth control.
Another effective means of blocking access to legal drugs is to have pharmacists who work in pharmacies that do stock emergency contraceptives to refuse to dispense the medication on the grounds that it is “against their religious conscious.” Which is a very nice slippery slope, if you think about it just a little bit. See, you can’t have EC because it is God’s will that the condom broke, so why should they fill an asthmatic’s prescription for an inhaler since it is God’s doing that you have fucked up lungs and it might be in His plan for you to die of an asthma attack. Who is a pharmacist to interfere with God’s mysterious ways?
As usual, I am not particularly optimistic about the situation. Maybe it is “God” testing me to see how much I can take before I am forced to move into a cave and live out my remaining days bats with the bats.
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I worked in a pharmacy for 6 years. You'd be amazed at how many people use Plan B not as a plan b, but as a plan a. "You don't understand! My boyfriend's coming home tonight!" Too bad you have no other options. I'm all for sexual freedom and whatnot, but I think Plan B should stay an emergency thing that you have to get from the doctor in case of rape or incest or something - not because you're irresponsible. Same thing with abortion.
ReplyDeleteAs for the religious thing, there was a law in CA that said the pharmacist could dispense Plan B without a prescription if they took some classes and then counseled each patient. I worked with several pharmacists who wouldn't do it not only for religious reasons, but for the reasons I stated above. They didn't want to encourage stupid people breeding.
Very rarely did I see it used as an actual emergency contraception, i.e. prescribed by an ER doctor.
I agree that it should be used for emergencies, especially since it is not very good for one's body to take a megadose of hormones, but the idea behind making Plan B OTC is that a lot of women can't get to their doc in the first 72 hours since unprotected sex.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how many women find themselves pregnant despite using birth control. There are so many things that can go wrong and sadly do. Sex can sure fuck you up. (haw haw.)