Column - Morning after pill should be available to all capable of child bearing

On Dec. 7, 2011, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the Food and Drug Administration's proposal to allow the emergency contraceptive, Plan B One-step, to be available over-the-counter to all ages.

Currently, the drug is only available to girls 16 and younger with a prescription. Those 17 and older are able to purchase it with a valid ID.

According to an LA Times article, Plan B One-step is most effective if taken 120 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse or contraceptive failure and can reduce the risk of pregnancy by 59 to 94 percent.

According to www.planbonestep.com, if the drug is taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex or contraceptive failure, about seven in eight women "who would have gotten pregnant" will not become pregnant.

This drug should be available over-the-counter to all women who have childbearing potential. However, patients should be mature enough to understand the package label or require counseling from a pharmacist.

All women have a right to control what happens inside of their bodies. This means women should be allowed to have access to emergency contraception that is safe and reliable without age restrictions.

Limited access does not just affect girls who need a prescription; it affects all women because the drug is behind the pharmacy counter. If a woman needs the drug and the pharmacy is closed at Walmart or Kroger, they will have to waste valuable time waiting for the pharmacy to open. And Plan B One-step is most effective if taken in a timely fashion.

However, critics of the FDA's decision have questioned if the drug is safe and whether more widespread availability would encourage sexual activity among teens. Critics also believe the decision will hinder parental involvement in their child's life.

Plan B is one 1.5-milligram dose of levonorgestrel, a synthetic hormone that decreases the chances of pregnancy. Plan B does not contain estrogen, so it does not have the risk of blood clots that other estrogen-containing drugs have.

There are side effects to the drug. The pill's website, www.planbonestep.com, lists period changes, nausea, lower abdominal pain, fatigue, headache, dizziness and breast tenderness as symptoms. However, experts say Plan B is safe and dependable. The LA Times quotes Angela Chen, an obstetrician and gynecologist at UCLA, saying, "there are no medical contradictions, and it doesn't interact with other drugs."

The drug works by delaying ovulation of an egg and by changing the "lining of the reproductive tract" to inhibit the chances sperm will fertilize an egg, according to www.latimes.com.

Antiabortionists also claim Plan B causes abortions. It is true Plan B can keep a fertilized egg from being implanted, but the drug will not interfere with pregnancy once the fertilized egg is implanted.

Others who oppose the FDA's decision to widen the drug's availability claim it will encourage more promiscuous behavior and unsafe sex. However, studies have not found statistical evidence supporting or disproving this claim.

A 2004 study by the Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology randomly assigned 301 sexually active girls between the ages of 15 and 20 to two groups. One group was given emergency contraception to keep at home, whereas the other group was told to contact the clinic for emergency contraception.

The results were no statistical significance between the groups, but those with the drug used it sooner, when the drug would be more effective.

Also, the group given emergency contraception reported more condom use. The coauthor of the study, Melanie Gold, a pediatrics specialist at the University of Pittsburgh stated, "they told us things (about emergency contraception) like, ‘I didn't want to use it, but I was glad to know it's there,' and ‘It reminded me to be careful."

There was no difference in frequency of sex between the two groups, which leads to the assumption that emergency contraception that is readily available does not promote higher sexual activity among teens, just as restricted emergency contraception does not decrease sexual activity.

Opponents also state that parents will be less involved in their children's lives if emergency contraception is more available.

However, parents have the responsibility to talk to their children about the positive and negative consequences of sex and have an open relationship with their children. Had my mother regarded sex and everything else as condemnable, I probably would have never been open with her about anything.

Boys and girls need to be educated about sex in school. Preaching abstinence is not enough; sexually active students (especially young students) could be unaware of contraception methods to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

About 750,000 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 become pregnant every year, more than half of those pregnancies are carried through.

It is ridiculous that teens become pregnant because of restrictions. It is difficult to think girls are having sex before the age of 13, but the truth is, a small percentage are – and they deserve to have control over their bodies.