morning after pill: soon to be over the counter

Bizzare!

We've had this in the UK for years now...

Yay!

And how long until the "every sperm is sacred" crowd comes out of the woodwork?

I do agree, it's about damn time this pill was made available OTC. Even though it hasn't been approved yet, this is a good second step.

[Edited on Dec 16, 2003 by SYH653]

wow. It's about time.

Rock and roll.

awww........if this pill prevents you having to get an abortion what are all the closed-minded zealots gonna complain about?

I've got mixed feelings on abortion, but this is one area where the benefits clearly outweigh the drawbacks. Excellent. Dr. Drew, your work is done here.

Sweet relief.

But how long before The Man convinces everyone that this product makes Baby Jesus cry and they are yanked off of store shelves by Anti-choicers?

Pro-life, you anti-lifer.

Its about damn time.

That term is just my gentle stab at the people that say "Pro-Death"

I know this isn't going to be as smooth as we'd all like it to be. I'm just wondering what angle they'll use for their protest.

Aside from protecting against STDs, what is the difference between the morning after pill and a condom?

I mean, I know anti-abortion drones say "Life begins at conception"....but....gah! Dammit.......this is so rediculous.

To think that someone can be so mentally fucked and have such a distorted view of reality...not to mention a serious sexual dysfunction......that they can split hairs like that.

Ok....I'm mentally fried on this issue, it just gets me too pissed off.

My point being:

Morning after pill being made available to women over the counter = good.

I feel like a psycho when I read things like these..
I've got two parts fighting inside me about this:

Part A:
People should do what they want with their bodies, as long as they don't harm any unwilling people/animals/federal buildings..

Part B:
This is just another excuse for teens to have sex. What happened to the body being sacred? Treat it like a temple, because it is.

I've compromised lately, though. My body is a temple and no one but me will destroy it. Other people can do what they want as long as they don't hurt me.

I just think it's really depressing how people treat their bodies. My good Christian friend has a boyfriend who's about two years older than her. She is held up to the standard of virginity until marriage. Sex is a focal point (ie: DON'T DO IT) in her family issues. So to spite them in her own secret-hush-hush way, she's fooling around, but still not having sex.

First off, it bugs me that it's for spite, and not out of love. Yes, they love each other, but she talks about the love as much as she does the spite.

I just think that if it wasn't such a focal point and people were more easy-going, people would be comfortable with having sex, or NOT having sex. (Of course, this won't happen until the dangers surrounding sex [and the hush-hush about it] decrease significantly.) I personally, do not consider sex (or any faction thereof) a part of a relationship until that relationship results in marriage.

But that's just me.

I'm just sick of uptight fuckwads that feel they have to run everyone's lives for them. Leave them be! If they wanna fuck up their lives, let them feel free.

I digress. And I don't care.

I generally think this is a good idea, but it's N/A for me.

[Edited on Dec 16, 2003 by LeeLeeThePanda]

The best way to stop the need for abortion is education and birthcontrol.This is a step in the right direction.

I believe in the right to choose, birthcontrol is the first choice.

The morning after pill is available over the counter anyway!

well in uk anyway
having had to go get it with many a girlfriend
oops

We are culturally ill-equipped, still (sadly!), to teach teenagers to think about sex reasonably and rationally -- as rationally as possible given their youth and the floods of hormones going on.

Giving people the ability to have sex with reasonable safety (birth and STD control) doesn't mean we should also be encouraging everyone to have sex all the time, especially teenagers. But since prohibiting sex (or trying to) doesn't work, as the case of your friend shows, we could at least try to make sure when they have sex, they know what they're doing and how to do it safely.

Hope that helps.

I saw on the news some girl died from taking the morning after pill yesterday. I Don't know the particulars of the story I only caught the end. I agree with MissMisha, I'd rather take care of the problem before it starts. It's just common sense.

Death to life. More zygotes dead... yes... More people dead wouldn't hurt of course.

I realize and appreciate that you were joking, but this is the sort of misconception that's gonna have the anti-abortionists up in arms, suicide bombing pharmacies and whatnot. Plan B isn't an abortion pill, it's an emergency contraceptive... that is to say, it won't terminate a pregnancy, it will only prevent one.

Pretty much everybody, including most anti-abortionists, defines pregnacy as when a fertilized egg implants itself into the lining of the uterus. It's an important distinction because 2/3 of fertilized eggs don't take anyway. Plan B affects the lining, preventing this from happening. But once a woman is pregnant, if, for example, she waited too long after sex to take the pill, Plan B won't cause an abortion.

This is a very, very important distinction, both because of the upcoming ethical battle and because Plan B is worthless if not used properly.

Was it RU486 or Plan B? They are two entirely different things, and Plan B is the one available over the counter.
More importantly, if only one person has ever died from taking that drug, it may be the best record in the entire pharmecutical industry. People OD on Asprin on a regular basis.