Plan B is Approved!

As a feminist, I am pretty pleased that Plan B emergency contraceptives, also known as the morning-after-pill, will now be available over the counter. The battle to bring these pills to the public has been going on for over 3 years, and the FDA has delayed and delayed their decision. Their own science has said the pills are safe and effective, but partisan politics would not allow them to make a decision until now. Senators Clinton and Murray held up the confirmation of the new FDA head until a decision was made, and now it has actually happened. On the not so great note, the pill will only be available to women over 18 (young women can still get it with a prescription) and it will be "behind the counter," so pharmacists can check IDs. No doublt this will lead to lots of embarassing impusle purchase while working up the courage to ask for it(at best) and pharmacists lecturing thier patients and judging them all over the place or refusing to give it out (at worst).

One funny note-in reading the Times piece on this, I followed a line to a group at Princeton University doing EC Advocacy. They have a list of emergency contraceptives and the brand names they are sold/prescribed under in other contries. While most were standard pharma-type names, I did find it interesting that in Thailand, EC is called "Madonna." I wonder if it works best when taken with Kaballah water.