Plan B pill now readily available (way PAST time for this to happen)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061206/ap_on_he_me/morning_after_pill

Plan B pill now readily available

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer 1 hour, 14 minutes ago

NEW YORK - A month after distribution began, the over-the-counter version of the morning-after pill is now available at pharmacies nationwide.
Planned Parenthood celebrated Wednesday with a free giveaway of the emergency contraceptive, while critics insisted that Plan B's accessibility will soon be a cause for regret.


Plan B was the focus of bitter debate for years before the
Food and Drug Administration, after repeated delays, declared in August that customers 18 and older should be able to buy it in pharmacies without a prescription.

The manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., then needed to develop new packaging for the over-the-counter version; it announced the start of national distribution on Nov. 6.

Plan B, a high dose of a drug found in many regular birth-control pills, can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Girls 17 and younger still need a prescription to buy Plan B, though an older person — male or female — could buy it over the counter on a teenage girl's behalf.

Supporters of Plan B had sought over-the-counter approval on the premise that wider availability would reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

[CTyankee]

1. We can thank Bill Clinton's head of FDA for getting pharmaceutical

companies to make this product. Before, clinics had to use a combination of birth control pills off label for emergency contraception. David Kessler actually encouraged pharmaceutical companies to make EC by itself. He indicated that the companies wouldn't have a bad time getting the pills approved.

What a boon this is to public health! Dr. Kessler is a hero.