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August 25, 2006
Plan F
Let me see if I've got this straight:
- A daily dose of from 0.05 to 0.15 mg of levonorgestrel requires a prescription.
- Requiring that a 1.5 mg dose of levonorgestrel must have a prescription is patriarchal tyranny over women's bodies, sexphobic anti-scientism and the precursor to a HANDMAID'S TALE-like theocracy.
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
Yep, women's safety/health goes out the door as soon as it conflicts with their ability to be available to men 24/7 with no strings attached - to say nothing of the life of the conceptus.
Posted by: AmericanPapist at Aug 25, 2006 4:03:27 AM
To be somewhat fair, I believe the argument for making regular birth control pills, the patch, etc. prescription only is to force women to get regular Pap smears, which is, of course, wholly unrelated to the use of BCP. I don't think they were made prescription as a safety issue. Who wants to bet that, once that HPV vaccine is widespread and reduces the need for Pap smears, the next push is to make BCP over-the-counter?
It's not going to be welcomed by the gynecologists, as it would be a big hit to their revenue, but there you go.
Indeed, many medications that are prescription-only are very safe to take, much safer than the OTC Tylenol (liver problems) and aspirin (bleeding ulcers). Some medications that are prescription-only here are over-the-counter in other countries (my ma-in-law brings back aspirin+codeine pills from the UK or Israel sometimes). I don't think that these countries have more pharma problems than we do.
Yes, all sorts of hormonal treatments, whether for birth control purposes, abortifacient purposes, or "youthfulness" purposes, can have some pretty severe side effects. But that's not really the standard for OTC. I'm thinking of Claritin and other allergy meds that were prescription-only up til the point they lost patent protection, and then the companies discovered that they were safe enough to use OTC and petitioned the FDA. Funny how that works.
Posted by: Meep at Aug 25, 2006 6:28:06 AM
"Today's greatest winner -- trial lawyers, who will soon receive a bountiful new field of cases, of people without medical training calibrating their use of drugs several times more powerful than what they need a prescription for when the stated purpose is something else (a fact that is chemically and biologically irrelevant). Mark my words -- within the decade, Barr Laboratories will either be hiding behind immunity granted by a Democrat Congress, bankrupt/in receivership, or will have sold Plan-B to the government or some group like Planned Parenthood."
Victor nails it. Personal injury attorneys are privately rubbing their hands with glee in anticipation.
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at Aug 25, 2006 6:45:53 AM
