Plan B - Morning After Pill

Many people have known for a long time that after unprotected sex, one can take a large dose of the contraceptive pill and it can prevent pregnancy. Plan B is just the "large number of pills" put together in one tablet.

I do not oppose the use of contraceptive pills, so to me this is just another version of the pill for pregnancy prevention. What I am against is abortion after pregnancy has been ascertained. The only danger of the easy access of this pill is that it might promote more promiscuity among the young who refused to use the condom and prefer to take the Plan B pill. We still don't know the long term effects of frequent use of this pregnancy prevention pill.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Sales of the Plan B "morning-after pill" nearly doubled in the past year, exceeding expectations after the U.S. government allowed adults to buy the emergency contraceptive without a prescription.

A three-year battle ended last August when the Food and Drug Administration decided that women and men 18 and older could buy the Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. product without a doctor's order if they showed proof of age at a pharmacy.

"More women know about it, and it's just becoming much more part of their mainstream reproductive health care," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said.

Plan B pills contain higher doses of progestin, a hormone used in prescription birth-control pills for 35 years. Two Plan B pills reduce odds of pregnancy by 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, studies show.

Plan B sales hit about $40 million a year when the product required a prescription for all women. Industry analysts and Barr projected nonprescription access for adults, approved in August 2006, could boost sales to about $60 million in 2007.

The popularity of Plan B has exceeded those estimates.

Barr launched the nonprescription version last November, and the company predicts 2007 sales will reach about $80 million.

"We believe (sales) will continue to grow," Barr spokeswoman Carol Cox said.

Read more here.