Tag emergency contraception

Plan B for 15-year-olds

Ed

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you need a prescription for the regular hormonal birth control pills, why doesn’t a higher dose of hormonal birth control pill–marketed as Plan B–need a prescription?

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has lifted the restriction on girls younger than 17 requiring a prescription to purchase Plan B over the counter. You can read here my objections to Plan B.

Teresa A. Donovan, MPH, writing for Charlotte Lozier Institute, the education and research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List, posted an interesting cli_logocommentary about the possible health risks from using Plan B. However, before listing some of the risks from taking a high dose of hormonal birth control, Donovan notes:

Various studies demonstrate that after a single act of intercourse, without contraception, 7.2 to 8 percent of women may be expected to become pregnant.  In contrast, pregnancy rates among women using “emergency contraception” (Yuzpe method, Plan B, Preven, etc.) are “reduced” to 1.9 percent.

In other words, out of 100 women who participate in  unprotected sex, 92 will not get pregnant. And if all 100 women used emergency contraception, 2 will still get pregnant. So, the push for Plan B to be sold over the counter and to be sold to minors is a great marketing scheme because 94 percent of the women who have unprotected sex and use emergency contraception will derive no benefit from the drug. It makes you wonder why a federal judge would want the FDA to approve the sale of a drug to all girls, regardless of age, which does not benefit them (click here to read article).

On top of that, no one talks about the potential health risks from ingesting high doses of synthetic hormones that target the women’s brain. Donovan writes about how harmful large doses of synthetic hormonal steroids (of which many types of emergency contraception are made) to the person ingesting it. She concludes by writing:

Plan B and other forms of “emergency contraception” are designed to thwart the normal functioning of the female endocrine and reproductive systems, beginning with – and, indeed, targeting — the brain.

Folks, wake up and smell the coffee, please. Emergency contraception is not women’s healthcare, on the contrary, it is likely to contributes to more health problems in the women who use it. It’s bad enough that it is now available to 15-year-olds with no medical supervision what-so-ever, but some people want girls of any age to have access to these potentially harmful drugs with no medical supervision.

You can read the entire blog post by clicking here.

It’s Begun — Onerous Regulations Under PPACA

Ed

It’s begun. My healthcare provider didn’t wait until our new plan year, it has implemented new coverages immediately starting August 1.

I just received an email from the HR director at my secular job (I have a “regular” job in addition to my position at the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod) regarding the new mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) that requires all health insurance plans, except grandfathered plans, to cover things that are considered women’s healthcare such as contraceptives and sterilization.

It’s amazing how words are thrown around to make ideas look good and most people don’t take the time to actually read the words and question what’s really happening. From the email I received:

Under the Affordable Care Act, women will now have access to life-saving preventive care, such as mammograms and contraception, without paying any more out of their own pockets.

I took issue with this sentence in the email for several reasons. Firstly, it should be noted that mammograms were always covered under our health plan as preventative care. Secondly, when did contraception become a “life-saving” medication? Finally, to make things sound really good, they added “without paying any more out of their own pockets”? Really? Because the last time I checked, nothing is free…oh that’s right, the woman will pay for it in increased premiums, as will everyone else in this plan.

On the first page of a newsletter from the health insurance provider attached to the email, there’s a table showing all the wonderful new coverages under women’s healthcare. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for healthcare that benefits people, but here are some new provisions that should make everyone pause and think:

1. Counseling and screening for sexually transmitted infections for females only beginning at age 10.

2. Counseling and screening for HIV for females only beginning at age 10.

3. Coverage for contraceptive methods and counseling:
a. Counseling, females beginning at age 10;
b. Oral contraceptives as prescribed;
c. Injected/implanted contraception as prescribed; and,
d. Sterilization, females only.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t males also get STIs? Why does the mandate, and my health plan, only cover counseling and testing for females? And why beginning at age 10? And why should my health plan, to which I pay premiums, cover a personal choice like sterilization? The plan doesn’t cover elective plastic surgery, so why should it pay for elective sterilization?

My really BIG question is this: doesn’t this amount to gender bias or gender discrimination? Females can get all these services provided for free (on the surface), but males have to pay for them? Why is there no outrage over this discrimination? Where’s the ACLU to protect me from this bias?

As for those who crafted and supported this legislation, I can’t speak for their motives, I can only question them as I look at what we’re being forced to do. For more on why it is wrong to start “counselling” 10-year-old girls about STIs and contraception, read a series on sexuality on Ezerwoman’s Blog starting with “Sexuality & the War on Women.”

The pro-aborts claim that pro-life folks are waging a war on women, but let’s look at the real facts. They want to sexualize children by 5 years old, they want to make contraception available (to females only) by 10 years old and have all of us pay for it, and they want no limits on abortions such as parental consent or notification (and also make us pay for it–don’t forget that there’s a $1 monthly charge on every health plan participant to pay for abortions under PPACA). And one final truth for everyone to consider: 50 percent of the 1.2 million babies aborted every year in the US are female.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like the pro-aborts are the ones who are really waging a war on women. Unfortunately well-meaning folk are being used by them to promote this war and it’s our mothers/wives/sisters/daughters who will pay  the consequences.

This Just Doesn’t Make Sense

Ed

I have really bad pollen allergies. I also have severe allergic reactions to cats.  Getting married to a woman who had two cats and moving to Virginia (where my nose constantly runs because of the pollen) was a bad combination.  So, I’ve been taking Claritin-D every day since 2007.

One of the main ingredients of Claritin-D is pseudoephedrine and because pseudoephedrine is the main component in the illicit production of methamphetamine, I have to produce identification when purchasing my Claritin-D. Now if you have allergies like I do, then you know the drill: go to Wal-Mart, stand in line at the pharmacy, take out your driver’s license, and let them scan it. Now there’s a record of what I bought and how much I bought.  Presumably, if I tried to go to another Wal-Mart immediately, the computer will scan my ID and inform me that I just bought all the Claritin-D that I need for now at another store and Wal-Mart won’t allow me to purchase more drugs.

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