Morning after pill - FDA must decide by September

Apparently federal health officials will soon decide whether to allow the sale of emergency contraception without a prescription.

Despite some quite aggressive attempts to restrict it's availability, some states are already are preparing to expand access to Plan B, the pill that can prevent pregnancy if taken soon after unprotected sex.

But regardless of how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ends this two-year saga, the issue will probably not be settled.

It is thought that the pills will probably come with an age limit, and anyone younger than 16 would still need a prescription.

This would mean that drugstores will need to ask young customers for proof of age.

This creates the dilemma of how the pills would be displayed, and how sales to minors could be prohibited.

It is already legal in seven states, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Washington, for women to buy Plan B that way, with no age restrictions, and Massachusetts is all set to become the eighth.

Lawmakers there are expected to override their governor's veto of nonprescription sales.

As to whether drugstores agree to carry nonprescription Plan B will depend largely on what steps are required in order to sell it.

Dr. Alastair Wood of Vanderbilt University, a well-known pharmacologist who advises the FDA, has said that even if the agency rejects nonprescription sales nationally, the growing state rebellion is bound to continue.

It is legal for states to allow behind-the-counter sales because at present it is state rather than federal government, which regulates how pharmacists practice.

According to Wood, the drug has long been considered safe and conflicts over state policy are senseless.

In the UK and Canada, Plan B is already available without a prescription.

It contains a higher dose of the hormones in regular birth control pills, and cuts the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent if used within 72 hours of rape, condom failure or just forgetting routine contraception.

It is more effective the earlier it is taken.

The push to allow nonprescription sales has been prompted by the difficulty of obtaining a prescription on weekends and holidays.

In a woman is already pregnant, the pills have no effect, as they prevent ovulation or fertilization of an egg.

There is also a possibility they prevent the egg from implanting into the uterus.

Easier access to the pill could halve the nation's 3 million annual unintended pregnancies, according to contraceptive advocates and doctors' groups.

The FDA's own scientists regard the pills as extremely safe to use, and more than 2.4 million Americans and millions more women abroad, have used them with few side effects.

The FDA's independent scientific advisers overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales as far back as December 2003.

But at the time the FDA rejected the move, citing concern about young teens' use of the pills without a doctor's guidance.

Then, drug company Barr Laboratories, reapplied requesting that women 16 and older be allowed to buy Plan B without a prescription while younger teens would need a doctor's note.

After the FDA missed a January deadline on the decision, members of Congress refused to accept the agency's new commissioner until he promised a new deadline of September 1.

Opponents of the pill argue that unrestricted access to Plan B could increase teenage sex and are pushing for restricted prescription access.

They feel that if the drug is sold without a prescription, FDA has no way to enforce an age restriction.

Wendy Wright of the conservative Concerned Women for America, declares the proposal to be 'ludicrous', as the person who buys the drug is not necessarily the person who takes the drug.

Apparently if the FDA rejects even age-staggered nonprescription sales, Planned Parenthood may sue, says president Karen Pearl.

Pearl says the FDA has ignored the scientific evidence, that this is the best way of assuring that when something does go wrong, people have a second opportunity to prevent the unintended pregnancy.