anyone surprised to hear this?

[winterbadger]

Amid considerable political maneuvering, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday rejected a controversial plan to sell emergency "morning after" contraceptive pills without a prescription, citing their potential effect on teenage girls.

from Newsday

Comments

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

Birth control pills are prescription... why shouldn't these be?
(or should those be OTC too?)

[winterbadger]

I'm of two minds; I think anything that fundamentally alters one's bodily processes like that should not be taken lightly and should only be used after a trained professional has ascertained you know the risks.

That said, given all the other things that someone of the age of majority can buy without a prescription, I think it's crazy that either BPC or MA pills should be restricted in this way for women of all ages. If they eventually implement the "OTC to women over 16" plan, that's something but still isn't addressing those teenagers who want to prevent a pregnancy and who use condoms or other methods that fail at a critical moment, but who don't want to or can't get a prescription.

This is a compromise,a nd like any compromise it;s better than the worst result you could get, but not as good as what you'd prefer. The people pushign the WH would rather these were banned altogether, and I guess it's saying some thign that that hasn't happened.

BTW, I love that these grousp are saying "If this is available, people [ read teeanagers] won't use condoms!" Yeah, aren't you the same people who are trying to prevent teenagers from getting condoms?

[kathygnome.livejournal.com]

It takes too long to get an appointment and people are having trouble getting access in time (you have about 72 hours and the effectiveness drops with time). There's plenty of evidence that a prescription isn't medically necessary.

The problem is particularly bad with teenagers because they may have delays because they're unaware of options or don't want to go to the family doctor (many of which won't prescribe anyway and/or will tell their parents).