If you weren’t sufficiently enraged by the Obama administration overruling the FDA’s decision to make Plan B available to teens under 17 without a prescription (which would have made it easier for all women to obtain emergency contraception), now there’s concern that the new birth control rulings out of Washington could make more women afraid to use hormonal contraception. Much like when a certain politician spouted false information about the HPV vaccine, all parents hear when they’re flipping past The Today Show is that medicines meant to protect their daughter’s health are likely to make her drop dead.
Several women’s advocacy groups tell Reuters that they’re worried that the headlines last week about the Plan B decision, as well as the move to change warnings for drospirenone containing birth control pills like Yaz and Yasmin and the Ortho Evra patch (which doesn’t contain drospirenone) might increase the public’s fears about hormonal contraception. Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, explains, “If you’ve seen on TV somebody crying that their daughter died taking birth control pills, and you’re a mom, you may not remember the (particular) birth control pill. You’ll just say you can’t be on it to your daughter.” National Research Center for Women & Families was one of the groups pushing for Yaz and Yasmin to be removed from the shelves, since there are safer pills available. Planned Parenthood said the FDA was right to keep the pills on the market, and pointed out that when fears of birth control causing blot clots emerged in Britain in the mid-’90s, many women went off the pill and the number of unwanted pregnancies increased. Dr. Vanessa Cullins, vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America said:
“What we know is that a focus by the media on meetings such as this carries the risk of creating panic among everyday women and also healthcare providers who may not be knowledgeable about why the meetings are being held and the data that is conveyed during the actual meetings.”
Since the FDA found after reviewing several studies that Plan B should be over the counter for everyone, it seems like the overturn of the decision was more about not wanting to be the administration that said middle schoolers can take the evil “abortion pill” (though, of course, that’s not what Plan B does).