Dear Colleague:
Over-the-counter (OTC) availability of the morning-after pill (MAP)-so
called "emergency contraception" or EC- would increase rates of
abortion,
disease, sexual promiscuity, and sexual violence committed against
American teens.
OTC/MAP means danger for American girls.
Steven Mosher
President
ACTION ITEM: Email fdadockets@oc.fda.gov.
Say "I urge the FDA to not
approve the morning-after pill for over-the-counter distribution
(2001P-0075), because doing this would cause increased rates of
promiscuity, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases, and increased
sexual violence committed against American girls."
SPREAD THE WORD: PRI's full report on OTC/MAP called "Under the Table -
Why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Should Not Approve the
Over-the-Counter Distribution of Morning after Pills" can be found on
either link below:
http://www.pop.org/main.cfm?EID=552
http://www.pop.org/under_the_table.pdf
PRI Weekly Briefing
16 April 2004
Vol. 6 / No. 15
OTC/MAP Means Danger for American Girls
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to make its final
decision on over-the-counter status (OTC) of the morning-after pill (MAP)
by this May 21.
Promoters of abortion claim that providing teens with open access to
reproductive health supplies would lower rates of sexual promiscuity and
sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
But a new study from Nottingham University in Scotland confirms that teens
who have access to morning-after pills engage in higher rates of sexually
promiscuous behavior, contract more STDs, and have higher rates of
abortion than teens who do not have such access.(1)
A governmental initiative in the U.K. sought to provide teens with free
MAPs and reproductive health supplies in certain regions, in a vain
attempt to protect teens from unintended pregnancy, to lower
"high-risk"
sexual activities and better protect teens from STDs. But this initiative
has backfired.
"By making the morning-after pill free to teenagers, the Government had
masked real levels of sexual activity among teenagers," reported a leading
newspaper in Scotland about the failed scheme.
OTC/MAP means danger to the health of American teens. The progestin-only
hormonal chemical causes weight gain, depression, ovarian cyst
enlargement, gallbladder disease, high blood pressure, respiratory
disorders, bulimia, anorexia, clinical depression, ectopic pregnancy and
abdominal pain.(2)
OTC/MAP means more American girls will contract a sexually transmitted
disease. OTC/MAP is marketed for those who engage in "unprotected
sex,"
and since this manner of dispensing the drug precludes proper counseling
for teens, OTC/MAP will cause a dramatic increase in rates of sexually
transmitted diseases. In Washington State, and in Sweden, where the
morning-after pill is widely available, rates of STD infection have been
skyrocketing since it was introduced in the late 1990s.(3)
OTC/MAP means more American girls will be victimized by sexual violence.
At an FDA advisory committee meeting in support of the Plan B/OTC
application, Vivian Dickerson, MD, president-elect, American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), promoted MAP as a response to
sexual violence committed against teens. Dickerson claimed that
adolescents should have access to OTC/MAP because they, "in particular,
[do not] have control over the occurrence of intercourse or the use of
contraception. Examples of such cases are rape, date rape, partner
pressure, or other socio-cultural pressures to engage in sex without
contraception."(4) Most parents of a girl who had been raped believe their
daughter deserves much more than an abortion-inducing pill: counseling,
testing for STDs, a police report, and preservation of forensic evidence
to incarcerate the rapist.
OTC/MAP means more American teens will become pregnant and have abortions.
Studies show that increased rates of pregnancy occur among teens with
increased use of morning-after pills,(5) and that teenagers whose
pregnancies ended in induced abortion were more likely to have used
morning-after pills before conception.(6)
For the safety of American girls, the FDA should not approve OTC/MAP.
ENDNOTES
1. "Action on teenage sex 'backfiring'," Edinburgh News, 5 April
2004.
2. See PRI's Weekly Briefing, "'Emergency Contraception' and the
Dangers
to Adolescents," 5 March 2004;
http://www.pop.org/main.cfm?id=215&r1=2.00&r2=2.00&r3=0.05&r4=0.00&level=3&eid=547
3. Ibid.
4. Transcript, Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee in Joint Session
with the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs Meeting, Food
and Drug Administration, December 16, 2003, P.38 Transcript available at:
www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/03/transcripts/4015T1.pdf.
Presentation by
Women's Capital Corporation/Barr Laboratories representative Vivian
Dickerson, MD, president-elect, American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists; see also: PRI's Weekly Briefing, "'Emergency Contraception'
and the Dangers to Adolescents," 5 March 2004;
http://www.pop.org/main.cfm?id=215&r1=2.00&r2=2.00&r3=0.05&r4=0.00&level=3&eid=547.
5. "Birth control for teens so pregnancies go up by 10pc," Daily
Mail
(London), Dec. 1, 2003. Under the initiative, adolescent girls in Lothian
were sent to clinics for the morning-after-pill. . . . But, while teenage
pregnancy rates fell across Scotland, they rose sharply in the Lothian
area to 59.1 pregnancies for every 1,000 females.
6. Dick Churchill, et al., "Consultation Patterns and Provision of
Contraception in General Practice Before Teenage Pregnancy: Case-Control
Study," British Medical Journal, 2000 August 19; 321 (7259): 486-489.
© 2004 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted.
Redistribute widely. Credit required.
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