四 川 铁 FourRiverIron

I wonder, does Emperor Obama also think jerking off will make you go blind?

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Obama calls morning-after pill call `common sense'

Thu, Dec 08, 2011

President Barack Obama said Thursday it was just common sense to keep girls under the age of 17 from being able to buy a morning-after contraceptive pill off a drugstore shelf. [Yea, common sense for religious nut jobs] Citing his own two daughters, Obama said: "I think most parents would probably feel the same way."

Plenty of pediatric leaders and women's advocacy groups did not, as reaction flowed in to the administration's decision to prevent the over-the-counter sale of the anti-pregnancy drug to sexually active girls of younger ages.

Critics said politics had trumped science, again.

"When President Obama took office, he pledged the administration's commitment to scientific integrity," said Cynthia Pearson of the National Women's Health Network. "This decision is a betrayal of that promise."

At issue is a pill that can prevent pregnancy if taken soon enough after unprotected sex.

It is available without a prescription only to those 17 and older who can prove their age — and that will now remain the case after Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled scientists at the Food and Drug Administration. They were preparing to let the pill be sold without a prescription or age limit.

Obama rallied around Sebelius' arguments that younger girls may not be able to understand the medicine's labeling or use the pill properly. [If a 17 year old is smart enough to have sex, they are certainly smart enough to know that the drug will prevent them from getting pregnant] He insisted he was not involved in the decision in any way. [Yea, sure!]

"I will say this, as the father of two young daughters: I think it is important for us to make sure that, you know, we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine," Obama said in a brief news conference at the White House.

Obama's daughter Malia is 13. His daughter Sasha is 10.

Obama said that as he understood it, Sebelius was wary of a 10-year-old or 11-year-old going into a drugstore and buying a medication — one on the shelves next to "the bubble gum and batteries" — that could be harmful if not used properly.

Stores, though, were never likely to put the drug near chewing gum or batteries. It was going to go on shelves by condoms, spermicides and pregnancy tests.

The rhetorical emphasis on the potential for 11- and 12-year-old girls to use the pill also rankled advocates.

There are no age restrictions on other over-the-counter drugs that could potentially have serious side-effects in young children.

"When it comes to FDA drug approvals, contraceptives are being held to a different and non-scientific standard — in a word, politics," said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. She said the comments by Obama and Sebelius would suggest no FDA-approved drug — not a Tylenol or a Sudafed — should be on drugstore shelves.

The center has a pending lawsuit against FDA over the morning-after pill restrictions and will argue in court next week that FDA should be held in contempt.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, fewer than 1 percent of 11-year-old girls are sexually active, but almost half of girls have had sex by their 17th birthdays, most of those beginning at age 15 or 16.

Plan B costs about $50 for the single-pill package, and "no 11-year-old or 12-year-old is going to have that kind of money anyway," said Dr. Cora Breuner of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a professor of pediatric and adolescent medicine at the University of Washington.

The pediatricians' group, along with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association, has pushed for over-the-counter access as a way to reduce unplanned pregnancies.

"How would condom sales be affected if men and women had to show identification to a sales clerk before making off with that precious package?" wrote Lehigh University biomedical ethicist Dena Davis.

Taking Plan B within 72 hours of rape, condom failure or just forgetting regular contraception can cut the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent. It works best if taken within 24 hours.

Sebelius' decision, however, pleased many conservative critics.

"The FDA did not have the data to support a decision of this magnitude," said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. "The secretary pointed out obvious deficiencies in the research and acted in the interest of young girls."

FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg made clear that the decision is highly unusual. She said her agency's drug-safety experts had carefully considered the question of young girls and she had agreed that Plan B's age limit should be lifted.

A person familiar with the decision said Sebelius did not share her reservations about Plan B ahead of time with the FDA.

The HHS secretary made her decision Tuesday night ahead of an expected announcement by the FDA on Wednesday. Sebelius notified Hamburg on Wednesday morning and then told the White House before publicly releasing her determination.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Planned Parenthood, a reproductive rights group, has asked for a meeting with Sebelius.

The move has election-year implications and angered many Democrats. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a member of the Senate leadership, already was asking Sebelius to explain her decision. But it also could serve to illustrate to independents that Obama is not the liberal ideologue Republicans claim.

Presidential spokesman Jay Carney said "there was communication" between the White House and the health agency during the decision-making process. But he emphasized that it was Sebelius' decision.

___

Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report. Feller is APs White House correspondent. Neergaard is an AP medical writer.

Woman under 17, remember the government thinks it owns your body!

If you can have a baby, it should be your choice to have an abortion, not some government nannies.

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Editorial: 'Morning-after pill' ruling goes beyond safety

The Food and Drug Administration says the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill should be available on drugstore shelves to everyone, including young girls, which is an easy call from the FDA's perspective. The agency is charged solely with assessing a drug's safety and effectiveness, and after 11 years of more restricted availability, Plan B passes those tests easily.

But beyond the science lies a more complex question, one that touches religious sensitivities and raises deeply personal questions about child raising: Should the decision on whether to use Plan B rest with underage teens or with their parents?

On Wednesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled FDA, so for now the "morning-after pill" will remain behind the counter, where those 17 and older need to ask a druggist and show an ID. For those younger, a prescription will be required.

Pro-choice groups promptly condemned the decision for putting politics ahead of science, anti-abortion groups found rare agreement with the Obama administration, and here at the USA TODAY Editorial Board, where views are diverse and consensus rules, we found ourselves split.

The most compelling argument in favor of making Plan B easily accessible to everyone is this: The rate of pregnancy among high school girls is an alarming 7%, according to the latest statistics. If anything can prevent those pregnancies, girls should have an opportunity to use it simply because the other options — the prospect of having a baby at such a tender age or getting an abortion — carry far more daunting, life-long consequences.

By restricting Plan B to prescription-only for younger teens, the government in essence leaves these girls with two choices: Asking older siblings or friends to obtain the drug for them, or confiding to parents and doctors that they've just had unprotected sex. Teens are more likely to wait and see what happens. Then it will be too late: The pill works only if it's taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, the sooner the better.

The price of Plan B — about $50 for a single tablet dose — makes it unlikely that teens would use it regularly. Teva Pharmaceutical, the maker of Plan B One-Step, has done two studies (which the company won't release publicly) that it says show that more than 80% of teens understood the drug's label and that 88% used it properly.

On the other side is the very sound argument that parents have every right to know what drugs their children are taking and whether they are having unprotected sex. Most children can't take an aspirin to school without parental permission, so does it make sense to allow them to purchase Plan B without parental knowledge? Parents also are obviously more capable of making medical judgments of any kind than are girls as young as 11.

Further, projections of enormous reductions in abortions and unintended pregnancies that greeted the arrival of Plan B, and inclined us toward supporting availability for teens, have proved wildly optimistic. Since 2000, when emergency contraceptives first went on the market, abortion rates have dropped by 8%. But, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice think tank, there's no data to show whether Plan B had an impact on that welcome change.

Then there is the wider abortion issue. Adults plainly should be free to make their own individual choices about Plan B. But for the government to tell parents who believe life begins at conception that they cannot restrict their minor chidren's ability to end it is an extreme intrusion.

President Obama, the father of two young daughters, seemed attuned to the sensitivity of the decision — politically and otherwise — when he said Thursday that "it is important for us to make sure that we apply some common sense … when it comes to over-the-counter medicine."

Letting such a delicate decision percolate a little bit longer is not the worst thing that could happen.

"It's preposterous to allow a teen to become pregnant when there is a safe, nontoxic method to prevent that from happening"

Hey let's not let logic and reason interfere with our superstitious religious values! At least that's how these religious nut jobs in the government feel about their decision to keep the pill from teenagers.

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A look at the Plan B pill controversy

By Jill U. Adams, Special to the Los Angeles Times

December 19, 2011

In a surprise development that riled some and pleased others, the emergency contraceptive drug Plan B One-Step — popularly called the morning-after pill — will remain available for girls 16 and younger by prescription only.

The Food and Drug Administration had earlier announced its intentions to permit sale of the drug over-the-counter for all ages, but on Dec. 7, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled that decision.

Predictably, reproductive health advocates cried foul over the development, and proponents of conservative family values hailed it.

Both Sebelius and Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, say they made their decisions — opposing ones — based on scientific evidence. What's going on? Here's a look.

Plan B is a single 1.5-milligram dose of the synthetic hormone levonorgestrel that can decrease the chances of becoming pregnant by an estimated 59% to 94% if taken within 120 hours of unprotected sex.

That fairly broad percentage range stems in part from the uncertain science of how likely a women is to get pregnant after a single sexual encounter and where she is in her monthly cycle. Also important is when someone takes the emergency contraceptive: Effectiveness in preventing pregnancy is highest — in the 80% range — on the first day after intercourse.

"The key is to take it very early, very quickly," says Dr. Angela Chen, a UCLA obstetrician and gynecologist. "Once the egg is released, it's less effective."

The medicine works in several ways. It delays ovulation so that sperm have a reduced chance of finding an egg to fertilize before they die. And it changes the lining of the female reproductive tract in a way that slows sperm and egg transport, reducing the chances of the two coming together.

Those same lining changes can also inhibit implantation of a fertilized egg. This is considered an abortion by antiabortion advocates.

Plan B does not interfere with pregnancy once implantation has taken place.

Side effects of Plan B include nausea, which 1 in 4 women experience, and, less frequently, vomiting, abdominal pain, dizziness and breast tenderness. But beyond those immediate effects, doctors say Plan B is extremely safe and effective. "There are no medical contraindications, and it doesn't interact with other drugs," Chen says.

One reason it's safe is that, even though Plan B is similar to birth control pills, it has no estrogen in it — only levonorgestrel, a progestin hormone. That means Plan B does not carry the risks of blood clots that pills containing estrogen do. Also, Plan B is a single dose drug, not something women take every day (or nearly every day).

Advocates say that restricting access to emergency contraception leaves young teens facing unwanted pregnancy. Nearly 750,00 girls aged 15-19 get pregnant each year in the US, and 59% of those pregnancies are carried to birth. "It's preposterous to allow a teen to become pregnant when there is a safe, nontoxic method to prevent that from happening," says Corinne Rocca, a researcher at UCSF's Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health.

Similar products are available over-the-counter in other countries, such as Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, South Africa and Thailand with no specific age restrictions. In Britain, France, Australia and China, emergency contraception can be purchased from pharmacists without a prescription but is kept behind the counter, as it is in the U.S. In Britain, buyers have to be at least 16. In France and Belgium, the medication is provided free of charge for girls younger than 18 without an age restriction.

In 2006, a two-dose formulation of the drug was approved for over-the-counter sale in the U.S. for women at least 18. In 2009, over-the-counter status for Plan B One-Step was granted for females 17 and older. The products are kept behind the counter because of the age restriction, though.

The FDA review for those decisions dates back to 2003, when an independent panel of reproductive health experts voted 23-4 to approve Plan B for all females of child-bearing potential, according to FDA spokeswoman Erica Jefferson.

Plan B's makers, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, with U.S. headquarters in North Wales, Pa., appealed to the FDA in February to remove the prescription-only status for girls under 17. To support their application, they submitted data that specifically addressed the issues raised by dissenting committee members, which included evidence that adolescents could understand the package labeling.

This time around, the FDA reviewed all the data and decided approval was in order. Hamburg said in a statement that she agreed with the analysis. "There is adequate and reasonable, well-supported, and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for nonprescription use for all females of child-bearing potential," she wrote.

Sebelius directed Hamburg to deny Teva's application.

This is the first time that any Health and Human Services secretary has overruled an FDA decision, Jefferson says.

Sebelius, in the statement announcing her decision, said that her main objection was whether very young girls could use the drug appropriately. She said that 10% of 11-year-old girls are "physically capable of bearing children" and that the scientific studies reviewed by the FDA had not been done in girls that young.

The mention of 11-year-olds is "a total distraction," Rocca says.

It is true, she adds, that most of the studies are of age ranges such as 15 to 20 or 16 to 24. But, she says, few 11-year-olds are menstruating and even fewer are having sex. National data say 10% of girls are menstruating at age 11 (50% start by age 12½) and 6% report having had intercourse before age 13. "They're not included in studies because it is very difficult to find 11-year-olds who are having sex and need emergency contraception," she says.

Those opposed to Plan B cite reasons beyond that of abortion.

"It's just a matter of common sense," says Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League. "The idea that they could go into a pharmacy and buy these very powerful steroids without talking to [a parent] or a doctor is just completely mad." Scheidler adds that in cases of minor girls having sex with older men, emergency contraceptives helps the abuser, not the girl.

Studies have not found increased sexual activity or decreased contraceptive use with freely available Plan B. In a 2004 study published in the Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, 301 sexually active girls ages 15 to 20 were randomly assigned to two groups: One was given a supply of emergency contraception to keep at home and the other was told to call the clinic if they needed emergency contraception.

After six months, 8% of the girls given a supply of emergency contraception used it, compared with 6% in the group without a supply. This is not a statistically significant difference. But those who had the drug at hand used it sooner — on average, 11.4 hours after sex versus 21.8 hours in the control group. Used sooner, the drug is more effective.

There was no difference in frequency of sex between the groups over the six-month study period. And the group given emergency contraception reported more condom use, says Dr. Melanie Gold, a pediatrics specialist at the University of Pittsburgh who coauthored the study. "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,'" Gold says.

"There's nothing scientifically to hold up this age restriction," Gold adds. "And because of it, the drug's behind the counter for everyone. It's not just bad for kids under 17, it's bad for everybody."

The FDA is inviting the drug company to discuss next steps, Jefferson says, but she would not speculate on what those next steps might be.

And on Dec. 13, 14 Democratic members of Congress wrote a letter asking Sebelius to substantiate the scientific basis of her decision.

The same day, the Center for Reproductive Rights, an international organization that promotes reproductive freedom, announced it will reopen its 2005 lawsuit against the FDA, pressing them to remove age restrictions on emergency contraception.

health@latimes.com