Abortion Rate down 21.3% thanks to Morning After Pill availablity......

I'm sure you've all seen the news in LBN that the FDA has approved quite overwhelmingly to allow the Morning-After Pill to be sold Over the Counter (OTC).

I did a quick search on additional information and found this great article from the Seattle newspaper about the Morning After Pill, which women can get from Pharmacists and not have to be bothered with going to the doctor or clinic.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001816104_pill16m0.html

From the article:

Already, Washington women are able to buy the pills from pharmacists without seeing a doctor first because of a state law. Now the company behind Plan B, a brand of emergency contraception, has asked the Food and Drug Administration to go further and make the pills available over the counter nationwide.


and...

Plan B contains two tablets of the hormone progestin in higher doses than those of regular birth-control pills. The sooner after intercourse they're taken, the more likely they are to prevent pregnancy. If taken within a day of intercourse, the pills are 95 percent effective; if taken within 72 hours, they are 89 percent effective.

If a condom breaks on a Friday night, for instance, it might not be possible for a woman to get in to see her doctor for a prescription in time, said Jane Hutchings of Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), a Seattle-based nonprofit working on health issues worldwide. Hutchings spearheaded the pilot project that made Washington the first state where pharmacists could sell the pills directly to women, starting in 1998.

and...

Since 1997, the year before Washington pharmacists began selling the pills, the state's rate of abortion has crept downward from 21.3 per 1,000 women of childbearing age to 19.6 per 1,000 last year.

The success of the program paved the way for four other states — California, Alaska, Hawaii and New Mexico — to follow suit.

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Isn't this the ultimate goal from both Pro and Anti-Choice supporters - to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Making this pill available at our local drugstores will greatly decrease the number of unwanted pregancies. And yet Fundies are claiming that easy accessiblity to the Morning-After Pill will increase promiscuity and sexually transmitted disease. I think this is a total fear inducing tactic from a group that is trying desparately to maintain control over women. Condoms rip, mistakes happen and that is why it's so very important that we ensure women have safe and with minimal psychological impact.

I'm praying that the fundies in congress don't go after this, but you know they're a group of men who are afraid of what this country would be like if women could control their own bodies

I'm glad this option was made available OTC for women.

a lower abortion rate (assuming it's not because of anti-choice actions) is a wonderful thing. But these sexist, self righteous neanderthals won't be happy until we have NO choice but to carry through with an unwanted/unplanned pregnancy. All the better to keep us in our place, don't 'cha know. :mad: