YES! FINALLY!

[filkertom]

FDA approves over-the-counter, non-prescription sales of Plan B.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I'm not celebrating until I can actually walk into a pharmacy and GET it. Five bucks says that even with this ruling, half the pharmacists will say I need a prescription and most of the pharmacies will be "out of stock."

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

It's wonderful news. I just hope we won't see a bunch of self-righteous pharmacists who won't dispense it (see RU-486) and chains that drop it because they're bowing to pressure groups.

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Looks like Roe v. Wade just became moot.

This may sound like a dumb question.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

No, strike that. It is a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyway. Throughout the article, the phrase "Women can buy..." is repeated. Is this just sexist phrasing, or can men actually not buy this product?

Re: This may sound like a dumb question.

[tpau]

i was jsut thinking that... i would liek to assume that men can go and pick it up for their GF/wife/one night stand... but one never knows. it woudl be sort of retarded for them not to, i mean a guy can go get my perscription birthcontrol refills...

Re: This may sound like a dumb question.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I honestly don't know -- and, in this political/social environment, anything's possible. Dunno.

Re: This may sound like a dumb question.

[mtgat]

I suspect it's phrasing much like would be used for tampon purchases. My S.O. can and does purchase various feminine hygiene products, but the vast majority of shoppers for same are going to be of the double-X variety.

[mtgat]

You mean except for the women who don't know about Plan B, still can't get it because pharmacies refuse to stock it, or don't know their birth control method failed until after they get the second line on the pee-stick?

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Our local family (as opposed to chain) pharmacy, which we prefer to support, has had a large sign up for a long while that says "We do not keep Plan B in inventory. Please be aware there will be a delay in filling your order" or something like it. We will see if this policy changes now, though I doubt it.

I won't even get into the implications of restricting sales to 18 and over despite all evidence that it's safe across the board (mainly to spare my blood pressure :-)

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I'd vastly prefer that there be no restrictions myself, but considering how long and fraught with political conflict the struggle to get the thing OTC status has been, I'll take what victories I can get and be thankful.

Re: This may sound like a dumb question.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

The difference, of course, is that it's the rare gentleman who's going to stock a variety of tampons on premise. This, on the other hand, strikes me as the kind of thing I'd want to have in the medicine cabinet in case of emergency. It's like a fire extinguisher: you never want to have to use it, but goodness knows you'll be happy it's there if you do.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

I bet many small town pharmacies won't stock it, but nobody ain't telling Walmart's home office what to do.

I guarantee that in an anti-choice state, the nearest Walmart is going to be closer than the one abortion clinic. The question becomes, "how will those states respond to keep the stuff off the shelves?".

I'll give odds that its going to be easier for a Methlab to buy Pseudofed than it will for a woman to get Plan B.

[armb.livejournal.com]

> nobody ain't telling Walmart's home office what to do

Apparently Massachusetts and Illinois (http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/02/15/state_orders_wal_mart_to_sell_morning_after_pill/) have Walmart to stock it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The question becomes, "how will those states respond to keep the stuff off the shelves?".

When the pharmacists say "I'm sorry, it's out of stock and our supplier can't get more to us for another two weeks" to every woman who comes in, who's going to be the wiser unless everyone starts comparing notes? You don't need a law when there's a coordinated effort to keep women away from having it... and there's already a very large machine that is dedicated to just that, and it's about to have to switch to its own "Plan B" now that Plan A - don't make it legal - finally failed. After working for how many years now?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

"We do not keep Plan B in inventory. Please be aware there will be a delay in filling your order"

All the more reason to stock up when you don't need it so it's available when you do.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

But thats such a tougher nut to crack.

Before a pharamcist who didn't feel comfortable dispensing it could just stand his ground. They could fire him or say it was okay. Sometimes they said it was okay. There was cost to both sides of the equation for the business.

Now, however, you've got a legal product people want to buy from you. Do you put it on the shelves or not?

A little pharmacy? A mom and pop store. Yeah, that could happen.

But in the case of a publicly traded company like Walmart, I don't think they have a choice. Management has a fiduciary obligation to it's shareholders. Unless people will boycott Walmart there's no cost to them. And lets see Rural America just *try* to boycott Walmart.

Short of laws on the books, it's going to be tough to keep it out of peoples hands.

Re: This may sound like a dumb question.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Since the new rules require proof-of-age, it sounds as if women will, in fact, have to buy their own.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Sorry, that's just not okay, here. Here's why: every single scientific study done on Plan B has shown that it's safe in all circumstances. Yet the FDA refused the (unanimous, I think) recommendation of its own scientists, something it had never done before, in refusing to certify it as over-the-counter. They insisted on further study, which verified the earlier ones. And still, until they needed a Senate vote to confirm the provisional head of the FDA, they did squat.

This is clearly a concession to the wingnuts who say that validating Plan B (which, IIRC, is NOT just a double dose of The Pill; I can look that up later) will encourage STDs and promiscuity. Of course, they ignore studies that suggest that people exposed to sex education consisting solely of abstinence are far more at risk than those whose education includes facts, and awareness of options such as condoms.

*sigh* There are so many battles, it's hard to just pick them, and this is one worth fighting until won, not just compromised on.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

*nod* Although we also have two chain pharmacies and, slightly further down the road, another two small pharmacies, none of whom has this policy in place. But there are places that are not as cosmopolitan, with one pharmacy, where your advice certainly applies.

[skalja.livejournal.com]

Oh thank GOD, finally.

... Is it ironic that I'm commenting with a rooster icon?

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Am I missing something? It's now available over the counter. You no longer have to rely on the devout Christian Science pharmacist who refuses to stock any actual medicine. You can pick it up at the supermarket. As long as there's a demand for the product, someone's gonna have it for sale.

This just did more than twenty nazi Bush judges to cut down on the demand for abortion.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

Looks like Roe v. Wade just became moot.

*blink* Gods, I hope you weren't actually serious in thinking that.

Aside from a potential lack of availability, problems with pharmacists who won't even give a woman her prescribed birth control, and the issues involved in rural areas, you still have a myriad of ways women become pregnant other than "I knowingly had unprotected sex."

Every rape victim isn't going to have the emotional strength the day after the rape to enter WalMart and get Plan B.

Girls under the age of 17 still need a prescription.

It is not always obvious when a birth control method has failed.

This does not in any way, shape, or form render Roe v. Wade unnecessary. I argue that NOTHING giving a woman the right to decide what to do with her own body will ever be "moot."

My rights are not moot.

Re: This may sound like a dumb question.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

That's impossible to regulate, though. I could go in and by Plan B for myself and then give it to whomever I want, same as a bottle of Ibuprofen.

I AM waiting for the movement to make it illegal for men to purchase Plan B, but I don't really know how they'll do that, legally. The SpouseCreature picks up my NuvaRing for me more often than I pick it up for myself. Women are allowed to purchase "men's blend" vitamins. I can't think of any other OTC drug that is gender-specific.

I suspect the writing in the article was just focused on women because it hadn't occurred to most people that men might buy it.

[morpheus0013.livejournal.com]

As long as there's a demand for the product, someone's gonna have it for sale.


Not if you live in Gardiner, Montana with its one grocery store/pharmacy and the nuts there don't want to stock it.

Re: This may sound like a dumb question.

[baronet.livejournal.com]

I would hope that a Father of sufficient clue and with a sufficiently communicative relationship with his Daughter could go out and buy her a dosage if she discovered that she needed it. Parental consent is kind of a given in that situation.