There's Always Plan B

Sunday, January 16, 2005

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to make morning-after birth control available without a prescription. The FDA may decide as soon as this week whether drug stores can sell the emergency contraception known as Plan B without a prescription to women age 16 and older.

Here is where I break with my conservative base and support the availability of Plan B which can prevent pregnancy for up to 72 hours after sex. With an 89% success rate, we can be optimistic that we are on the right path to ending unwanted pregnancy that doesn't involve a scalpel or suction tube.

Conservatives say people will be less reluctant to have risky and unprotected sex if they've got a box of B under the nightstand where condoms traditionally collect. But I would rather Plan B be used to prevent pregnancy than the liberals' preferred method; a fork in the head and a knife to the spinal cord.