Access to Plan B Advances with FDA Ruling

Sunday November 30, 2008

A new study of pharmacies in three large US cities reveals that women now have easier and quicker access to the morning-after pill ever since the FDA ruled that Plan B could be sold to adults without a prescription. In 2006, the FDA approved behind the counter status for Plan B, so that people aged 18 and older could buy the emergency contraceptive over the counter, while younger people still needed a prescription from a doctor.

Dr. Rebekah E. Gee of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, the lead researcher on the study, and her colleagues surveyed pharmacies in Atlanta, Boston, and Philadelphia in 2005 and 2007. In 2005, 23% of pharmacies reported being unable to dispense Plan B within 24 hours. Two years later, just 8% did. And 2% of the pharmacists surveyed in 2007 said they would refuse to dispense the drug, compared to 4% in 2005 (in states where law permits pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception if it conflicts with their moral or religious beliefs).

Plan B is extremely safe, and is more effective the sooner you take it (which is why availability is so important). Gee notes, "There's no evidence that use of Plan B leads to more intercourse or riskier behavior, even though some of its opponents have claimed that. The data definitely show that that's not true."

The US has the highest rate of unplanned pregnancies in the industrial world. Gee further writes, “Plan B does not reduce rates of unplanned pregnancy in the population at large… because it isn't a replacement for routine contraception. Only through increased access to more effective methods of contraception and by empowering women to be educated about their reproductive health will we likely see a change in unintended pregnancy rates.”

_{SOURCE: American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, November 2008}