The Morning After Pill and Wendy Wright
Today I read / heard about the morning after pill decision on friday.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/parenting/08/26/morning.after.pill.ap/
Fuck you, FDA. I see through your bullshit like rice paper, idiots. They're just stalling, and pretending as if sale to minors is actually an issue. It never was, not in the whole debate!
Whoever Downey is, he makes a fantastic fucking point: "FDA rejected that recommendation [FDA independent scientific advisers overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales for everybody, not just adults, in December 2003.], citing concern about young teens' use of the pills without a doctor's guidance. Barr reapplied, asking that women 16 and older be allowed to buy Plan B without a prescription while younger teens continue to get a doctor's note. Downey noted that cigarettes are sold in drug stores with age restrictions.
So what if minors can have the morning after pill?! Its not GHB or arsenic, you idiots, its three doses of the regular pill! They don't know how to take it? Give them instructions. Jesus christ its not that hard just two pills with something like a 72 hour split. See? I'm a guy and even I can figure it out!
At the bottom of CNNs page I read an interesting quote:
"It is naive to assume any over-the-counter scheme for the morning-after pill would be effective," said Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America. "Making the morning-after pill over-the-counter would only benefit those that profit from its increased sale, but the real price will be paid by women and girls who would suffer the health consequences."
I don't even know how to argue with this kind of logic. Its impossible to develop an approach to attack a whole wall of bullshit, its like King Arthurs assault on the French castle in The Quest for the Holy Grail. Naive? Naive?! Ineffective in what? Its 90% effective if taken within 24 hours you idiot! Health consequences, like what, nausea? If Jesus Christ himself still walked the earth he'd find an Abraham to kill you.
I was pretty astounded by this Ms.Wright, and laughing at how right my mom was in talking about the conservative euphemisms for their organizations' names. Curious about both of them I decided to navigate my way to their website, http://www.cwfa.org/ . I found some interesting information:
“Studies show that easy access to the morning-after pill does not decrease abortions or pregnancies, but it does increase sexually transmitted disease rates,” said Wendy Wright, senior policy director for CWA [they speak only in 3rd person]. “What’s more, experts have found that men will frequently buy it, and some slip it to unsuspecting women. An age restriction would not hinder men who would buy the drug and give it to underage girls.”
Lies. And I love the idea that access increases STD rates, as if its close to causation, or alternatively not taking the morning after pill might makes you less susceptible to STDs.
I also stumbled upon the News Hour website (PBS), which was funny because I actually have watched two debates on the morning after pill on this exact show and wondered who the idiot and liar was (Wendy Wright). I took this little cut from the transcript ( http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec03/pill_12-17.html ) because it really characterizes the whole debate. Basically, Wright lies, and then everyone else corrects her. The really unfortunate thing about debates like this is that Ms.Wright comes across as possibly telling the truth, so people might be inclined to draw their line somewhere between the two sides when in fact she is just lying. I don't understand what it is with people like this, how they can just lie their ass off constantly and still even be considered.
WENDY WRIGHT: Well, actually there have been no studies done to find out what kind of medical effects this will have on women in the long term. And there have been no studies done on what kind of effect it has on women who take it multiple times.
In the United Kingdom where it's been easily available they found of the group of 18 to 19-year-old those took it, a quarter of them used it more than once in a year. In Scotland where it's also easily available, they found that teen pregnancies went up and abortions went up. So what this seems to imply that is people will engage in risky sexual behavior, including behavior that will end up causing sexually transmitted diseases because they're expecting that they can rely on the morning after pill to prevent a pregnancy, then they're not as concerned about protecting themselves against sexually transmitted diseases.
RAY SUAREZ: Gloria Feldt, is that right? Is there as little research into the use of this drug as Wendy Wright suggests?
GLORIA FELDT: Oh, my goodness no, emergency contraception has been very extensively researched. The New England Journal of medicine has published several studies which make very clear that women use emergency contraception responsibly, they don't use it instead of their regular method of contraception, and in fact there's something about having access to emergency contraception that seems to actually remind women to use their contraception more effectively themselves, and their rate of unintended pregnancy is lower.
When you compare the rates of unintended pregnancy, teen pregnancy, abortions, and sexually transmitted infections among teens with that of other countries… Let me give you some examples. The rate of teen pregnancy in France, where emergency contraception is widely available by public health policy, unintended pregnancy among teens or pregnancy among teens and abortion rates among teens are approximately one fourth of what they are in the United States.
Similarly, in England, the rate of teen pregnancy is half of that in the United States. So I'm afraid that Wendy just doesn't have her data correct. There are no studies at all that have found in any way that there is a correlation between increased teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections and the use of emergency contraception. It just isn't true.
I also ran across this website: http://www.morningafterpill.org/ . I was at first a little confused by the name, but I guess they just got the domain first. Here are some things I learned-
Emergency contraception (also known as the morning-after pill) is a high dosage of the birth control pill. It is recommended to be used after sexual intercourse, over a period of 72 hours, to achieve the goal of preventing (or ending) pregnancy. There are three different ways birth control pills are currently being promoted for this use: progesterone alone, estrogen alone, or both of these artificial steroids together.
Here are some of the side effects:
* nausea
* vomiting
* infertility
* breast tenderness
* ectopic pregnancy (can be life threatening)
* blood clot formation
Please. First, they suggest that it might end a pregnancy. This might seem a reasonable assumption if you haven't read anything about the MAP ever, except that nobody has documented a single case in which the morning after pill has ended a pregnancy (ie a fertilized egg being aborted). And thats after literally hundreds of thousands of uses. Not one.
Side effects include...infertility? Well, maybe if you're unclear on what the word infertility means, you might think that preventing pregnancy is infertility. Otherwise, this is simply untrue. And the idea that taking the MAP can induce an ectopic pregnancy is just preposterous. An ectopic (aka tubal) pregnancy means an egg that is fertilized in the fallopian tube (and grows there, which can and is often fatal), which just plain has nothing to do with this since it works just like the pill- by preventing implantation. I don't know the medicine behind it, but it would seem very logical that in fact the MAP would decrease the chances of implantation in the fallopian tube since it does in the uterus anyways...
===
Also from the CWA, a bit about the patch:
Despite appealing advertising, though, Ortho Evra-which went on the market in 2002-is causing serious concerns. It is being pinpointed as the cause of death of 23 women, including 17 in the past two years due to blood clots. Blood clots are seen as a high risk for hormonal birth control because estrogen promotes blood coagulation.
"That number of deaths certainly sounds suspicious," said Dr. Pamela Berens, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, in the AP article. "There may be something about the way the drug is metabolized that could increase the risk for clots."
“This unbelievable admission reveals a disturbing view within the medical community - that it is worse to be pregnant than dead,” said Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America’s senior policy director. “Have any of these experts talked with the families of these women, their children left without a mother, their parents bereft of a daughter, to see if they agree that their loved one’s death is preferable to her having a child?”
Yes, you idiot, that is what they said, it is worse to be pregnant than dead. Exactly. Because, you know, most doctors just general dispise people and children. After all, they only dedicate about 10 years in school and a career and possibly their life trying to help people.
Dr.Berens is absolutely right, and I think they fucked up on their quoting, because yes, the number of 23 does seem suspicious, since it is coming from the CWA. I looked it up and found this, "The deaths of 16 women are linked to the contraceptive patch. That's 16 deaths from blood clots and heart attacks and strokes per 4.1 million woman-years".
They even later cite a AP article that says women on the pill suffer a 1 in 200,000 risk of dying from a blood clot, while those on the patch reach for a rate of 3 in 200,000. Wow, it really must be a dangerous pill, especially when you consider that there are nearly 12 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies.
Fuck you, FDA. I see through your bullshit like rice paper, idiots. They're just stalling, and pretending as if sale to minors is actually an issue. It never was, not in the whole debate!
Whoever Downey is, he makes a fantastic fucking point: "FDA rejected that recommendation [FDA independent scientific advisers overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales for everybody, not just adults, in December 2003.], citing concern about young teens' use of the pills without a doctor's guidance. Barr reapplied, asking that women 16 and older be allowed to buy Plan B without a prescription while younger teens continue to get a doctor's note. Downey noted that cigarettes are sold in drug stores with age restrictions.
So what if minors can have the morning after pill?! Its not GHB or arsenic, you idiots, its three doses of the regular pill! They don't know how to take it? Give them instructions. Jesus christ its not that hard just two pills with something like a 72 hour split. See? I'm a guy and even I can figure it out!
At the bottom of CNNs page I read an interesting quote:
"It is naive to assume any over-the-counter scheme for the morning-after pill would be effective," said Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America. "Making the morning-after pill over-the-counter would only benefit those that profit from its increased sale, but the real price will be paid by women and girls who would suffer the health consequences."
I don't even know how to argue with this kind of logic. Its impossible to develop an approach to attack a whole wall of bullshit, its like King Arthurs assault on the French castle in The Quest for the Holy Grail. Naive? Naive?! Ineffective in what? Its 90% effective if taken within 24 hours you idiot! Health consequences, like what, nausea? If Jesus Christ himself still walked the earth he'd find an Abraham to kill you.
I was pretty astounded by this Ms.Wright, and laughing at how right my mom was in talking about the conservative euphemisms for their organizations' names. Curious about both of them I decided to navigate my way to their website, http://www.cwfa.org/ . I found some interesting information:
“Studies show that easy access to the morning-after pill does not decrease abortions or pregnancies, but it does increase sexually transmitted disease rates,” said Wendy Wright, senior policy director for CWA [they speak only in 3rd person]. “What’s more, experts have found that men will frequently buy it, and some slip it to unsuspecting women. An age restriction would not hinder men who would buy the drug and give it to underage girls.”
Lies. And I love the idea that access increases STD rates, as if its close to causation, or alternatively not taking the morning after pill might makes you less susceptible to STDs.
I also stumbled upon the News Hour website (PBS), which was funny because I actually have watched two debates on the morning after pill on this exact show and wondered who the idiot and liar was (Wendy Wright). I took this little cut from the transcript ( http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec03/pill_12-17.html ) because it really characterizes the whole debate. Basically, Wright lies, and then everyone else corrects her. The really unfortunate thing about debates like this is that Ms.Wright comes across as possibly telling the truth, so people might be inclined to draw their line somewhere between the two sides when in fact she is just lying. I don't understand what it is with people like this, how they can just lie their ass off constantly and still even be considered.
WENDY WRIGHT: Well, actually there have been no studies done to find out what kind of medical effects this will have on women in the long term. And there have been no studies done on what kind of effect it has on women who take it multiple times.
In the United Kingdom where it's been easily available they found of the group of 18 to 19-year-old those took it, a quarter of them used it more than once in a year. In Scotland where it's also easily available, they found that teen pregnancies went up and abortions went up. So what this seems to imply that is people will engage in risky sexual behavior, including behavior that will end up causing sexually transmitted diseases because they're expecting that they can rely on the morning after pill to prevent a pregnancy, then they're not as concerned about protecting themselves against sexually transmitted diseases.
RAY SUAREZ: Gloria Feldt, is that right? Is there as little research into the use of this drug as Wendy Wright suggests?
GLORIA FELDT: Oh, my goodness no, emergency contraception has been very extensively researched. The New England Journal of medicine has published several studies which make very clear that women use emergency contraception responsibly, they don't use it instead of their regular method of contraception, and in fact there's something about having access to emergency contraception that seems to actually remind women to use their contraception more effectively themselves, and their rate of unintended pregnancy is lower.
When you compare the rates of unintended pregnancy, teen pregnancy, abortions, and sexually transmitted infections among teens with that of other countries… Let me give you some examples. The rate of teen pregnancy in France, where emergency contraception is widely available by public health policy, unintended pregnancy among teens or pregnancy among teens and abortion rates among teens are approximately one fourth of what they are in the United States.
Similarly, in England, the rate of teen pregnancy is half of that in the United States. So I'm afraid that Wendy just doesn't have her data correct. There are no studies at all that have found in any way that there is a correlation between increased teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections and the use of emergency contraception. It just isn't true.
I also ran across this website: http://www.morningafterpill.org/ . I was at first a little confused by the name, but I guess they just got the domain first. Here are some things I learned-
Emergency contraception (also known as the morning-after pill) is a high dosage of the birth control pill. It is recommended to be used after sexual intercourse, over a period of 72 hours, to achieve the goal of preventing (or ending) pregnancy. There are three different ways birth control pills are currently being promoted for this use: progesterone alone, estrogen alone, or both of these artificial steroids together.
Here are some of the side effects:
* nausea
* vomiting
* infertility
* breast tenderness
* ectopic pregnancy (can be life threatening)
* blood clot formation
Please. First, they suggest that it might end a pregnancy. This might seem a reasonable assumption if you haven't read anything about the MAP ever, except that nobody has documented a single case in which the morning after pill has ended a pregnancy (ie a fertilized egg being aborted). And thats after literally hundreds of thousands of uses. Not one.
Side effects include...infertility? Well, maybe if you're unclear on what the word infertility means, you might think that preventing pregnancy is infertility. Otherwise, this is simply untrue. And the idea that taking the MAP can induce an ectopic pregnancy is just preposterous. An ectopic (aka tubal) pregnancy means an egg that is fertilized in the fallopian tube (and grows there, which can and is often fatal), which just plain has nothing to do with this since it works just like the pill- by preventing implantation. I don't know the medicine behind it, but it would seem very logical that in fact the MAP would decrease the chances of implantation in the fallopian tube since it does in the uterus anyways...
===
Also from the CWA, a bit about the patch:
Despite appealing advertising, though, Ortho Evra-which went on the market in 2002-is causing serious concerns. It is being pinpointed as the cause of death of 23 women, including 17 in the past two years due to blood clots. Blood clots are seen as a high risk for hormonal birth control because estrogen promotes blood coagulation.
"That number of deaths certainly sounds suspicious," said Dr. Pamela Berens, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, in the AP article. "There may be something about the way the drug is metabolized that could increase the risk for clots."
“This unbelievable admission reveals a disturbing view within the medical community - that it is worse to be pregnant than dead,” said Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America’s senior policy director. “Have any of these experts talked with the families of these women, their children left without a mother, their parents bereft of a daughter, to see if they agree that their loved one’s death is preferable to her having a child?”
Yes, you idiot, that is what they said, it is worse to be pregnant than dead. Exactly. Because, you know, most doctors just general dispise people and children. After all, they only dedicate about 10 years in school and a career and possibly their life trying to help people.
Dr.Berens is absolutely right, and I think they fucked up on their quoting, because yes, the number of 23 does seem suspicious, since it is coming from the CWA. I looked it up and found this, "The deaths of 16 women are linked to the contraceptive patch. That's 16 deaths from blood clots and heart attacks and strokes per 4.1 million woman-years".
They even later cite a AP article that says women on the pill suffer a 1 in 200,000 risk of dying from a blood clot, while those on the patch reach for a rate of 3 in 200,000. Wow, it really must be a dangerous pill, especially when you consider that there are nearly 12 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies.