Sexual Behavior Not Influenced By ... 'Morning After Pill,'

[benburch]

<Thread subject shortened to fit>

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050121110428.htm

Sexual Behavior Not Influenced By Increasing Young Women's Access To 'Morning After Pill,' UCSF Study Finds

Young, urban women showed no reduction in their use of contraceptives, nor any other changes in their sexual behavior when provided with easier access to the so-called "morning after pill," also known as emergency contraception (EC), according to UCSF researchers.

Rates of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) were the same at the end of the six-month study regardless of whether women had increased access to EC.

In the study, published in the January 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, 2,117 women age 15-24 in two San Francisco Bay Area cities were randomly assigned to one of three groups, each providing a different degree of accessibility to EC. The women either were instructed to get emergency contraception directly from pharmacists (without a prescription), were provided with three doses of emergency contraception in advance, or were assigned to get the drug by going through a clinic (the study's "control" group).

<SNIP>

[pinto]

1. thanks for the post and the link to the study....n/t

[More Than A Feeling]

2. Sadly, I doubt many people

who want to restrict contraception would change just because of a study.

[pinto]

5. no, but it gives practitioners some "backing" to continue and support

providing EC.

[Gman]

7. They don't care because they don't want people having sex

If there is one single issue that defines the GOP, it is the GOP is against anything that has to do with sex, at least in public.

[More Than A Feeling]

9. So the Democratic Party is pro-sex-in-public? lol

Wow, I didn't realize I was supporting such a laidback party. ;-)

[EVDebs]

12. dude, Ashcroft putting pasties on the statue...classic

he spent $8,000 of taxpayer dollars to cover up a Lady Justice statue with exposed breasts. The Vatican is shuddering if he ever visits !

[Gman]

14. Well, I guess that came out wrong...

But yeah, public sex would be ok too! Think we can present a resolution praising public sex at the next convention?!

[gollygee]

13. Oh they'll make their own study

The subjects of their study will be a very small group of young women pre-selected to prove their point. And the results of the study will be on every tv news program the day it's released.

[EVDebs]

3. Plan B makes the anti-choice side arguments more and more irrelevant

Unless they want to claim that sperm alone have rights. Ovum, unfertilized, also could be claimed to have rights, but it boils down to an argument to absurdity.

[benburch]

4. Their Religion is an absurdity.

Why would another one matter?

[EVDebs]

6. The basis for Roe v. Wade is the right to privacy

"Therefore, there seems to be an increasing assumption in the current Rowe vs. Wade debate and the new debate on RU486, that a zygote really is a child. The reason, of course, that the fundamentalists promote this lie is that by making a zygote into a child, is that it brings that zygote under the moral, if not legal protections enjoyed by children.

That leads to a problem. When public policy is based on lies, bad laws are the result. There is a very good probability that Rowe vs. Wade, the bedrock Supreme Court decision defending women's reproductive rights, will be abolished by legislative fiat in the near future, and mostly because of a lie often believed."

http://www.bidstrup.com/abortion.htm

In case Roe v. Wade is abolished, Plan B will undoubtedly trump the 'legislative fiat' mentioned above. Of course, public awareness of Plan B aka the 'Morning After Pill' will become more and more necessary - but this will only tend to make the irrationality of the anti-choice argument for you. The media silence is already deafening.

[rodeodance]

10. your are right-Plan B is a real threat to the Right as it is taken in the

privacy of the home--and women to not have go out to a clinic.

[lawladyprof]

8. And here's Concerned Women for America's spin

From their email alert.

Dear Friends,
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will decide this week whether to allow Plan B, a morning-after pill, to be available over-the-counter to anyone who is over 16 years old and to those younger than 16 with a prescription. After the FDA denied its first application for over-the-counter status last May, Barr Labs, the owner of Plan B, filed a new application with this marketing scheme, purportedly to address concerns that the drug has not been adequately tested for the health effects on adolescents.
Proponents loudly claim that easy access will reduce pregnancy rates and abortions. Not so, according to studies - even studies designed by morning-after pill advocates.
A new study released last week showed that easy access did not increase "unprotected sex"; but buried in the announcement was the startling admission that the study's purpose was to show a decrease in pregnancy rates. Surprise! No statistical difference was found among women who had three packs of the drug in hand, those who went to a pharmacy to get it, or those who had to go to a clinic.
The study also found that women (15 - 24 years old) who had the drugs in hand were likely to use it more than once in a six-month period. Yet, no studies have been done to determine the medical effect of multiple uses of this high dose of hormones.
Other studies show no decrease in the number of abortions where the drug is easy to obtain.
Abortion advocates - including congressmen - are exerting immense pressure on the FDA to make this drug easy to get. They argue that other countries make it available, so the U.S. should as well. Not mentioned is that these countries also experience a surge in sexually transmitted diseases when the drug is available without prescription.
And one country found that the most frequent buyer of the morning-after pill is men, who sometimes slip it to women without their knowledge or consent.
Easy access to the morning-after pill does not reduce pregnancy rates, increases sexually transmitted disease rates, and accommodates men who seek to abuse women and girls.
Please contact the FDA now and urge the agency to continue requiring a prescription for the morning-after pill. Tell the FDA, "Please do not approve any scheme to make the morning-after pill available without prescription." The FDA's phone number is [phone]. Or, click here for a prepared email.
The FDA's deadline is January 22, 2005. We know that pro-abortion groups are already asking their members to call the FDA as well. Time is of the essence, so please do not delay. Thank you.
Sincerely,
The Legislation Department
Concerned Women for America

[rodeodance]

11. I emailed them last week, Monday we will prob. know the decision.

[jdj]

15. what a bunch of man-haters

"Easy access to the morning-after pill does not reduce pregnancy rates, increases sexually transmitted disease rates, and accommodates men who seek to abuse women and girls."

wow. If NOW is the National Order of Witches, then CWA must be "Castrating Weiners for America".

[fshrink]

16. And what if we want to fuck when we want?

Ooooh... No... That's evil. Plus, this is a French patent. Evil + less profit = 1947 studies making reaaaaaalllly sure that it's OK. Good US partially hydrogenated oil (lethal for the liver) = Immediate availability on shelf + 0 studies.

[James T. Kirk]

17. It also implies that the pills are ineffective.

From the article:

Although the study was limited to women who stated their intention to avoid pregnancy for the duration of the trial, eight percent of women in each group became pregnant.

[MHalblaub]

19. "Logic and practical information do not seem to apply here." (Spock)

From the article:
<<
And although women in the advance provision group were almost twice as likely to use emergency contraception as the others, only slightly more than half actually used emergency contraception over the study period, perhaps explaining a pregnancy rate statistically similar to the other two groups.
>>

Probably 8 % of the women wanted to get pregnant despite of earlier tries to avoid pregnancy.

The effectiveness was not the aim of the study. Therefore you should read other studies on that pills.

[Maat]

18. Thanks for the link.

I read the rightwing websites. I don't have something specific in mind, because I don't have time to research, but I know that they actually put an article up (I believe it was on www.agapepress.org) that suggested just the opposite of what the study above showed.

They are relentless. They want women controlled by men, and they want people poor, unable to support huge families. Puts people in desperate straights - they are willing to work for any wage. Nice supply of cheap labor.

Thanks for the help in fighting the myths the Religious Right is spreading.