WASHINGTON (January 6, 2005) — While the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) weighs a second request by Barr Laboratories to sell its
morning-after pill “Plan B” over-the-counter without a prescription, a
new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that
such a change would have no effect on pregnancy rates. The study,
co-authored by a Planned Parenthood doctor, analyzed a sample of over
2000 girls and young women, ages 15 to 24 years. One group was given
packs of morning after pills and another obtained them from a pharmacy,
but the results were the same: 8% of the participants became pregnant
and 12% acquired sexually transmitted diseases.
“This study blows the lid off the main argument for putting morning
after pills on the drugstore shelf,” said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq.,
Director of Planning and Information for the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. “Proponents have
repeatedly claimed that making the drug available without a prescription
would reduce abortion numbers by as many as half; now their own study
debunks that claim.”
Plan B is essentially an “overdose” of prescription birth-control
pills. It is marketed and advertised as a “contraceptive” but its own
proponents admit that it works before and after conception. Studies in
New Zealand and the UK show the drug is associated with an increased
risk of ectopic pregnancy, a potentially fatal complication.
“Our message to the FDA remains the same: putting Plan B on the
drugstore shelf is bad policy and bad medicine,” said Ruse.