www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Another pro abortion (death) anti-family law

...and more babies are going to die because of the decision of this country in November. Wonder how their conscience carries such a burden of responsibility? They can't say they were ignorant that this would happen, we preached it and the libs came right out and told them they would do this. Prayers! For their souls and the souls of the faithfully depart, may they rest in peace, Amen!

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Food and Drug Administration, reversing field, will now let 17-year-olds get the 'morning-after' birth control pill without a doctor's prescription, a government health official said Wednesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency will announce that it is complying with a federal judge's order that overturns a Bush administration policy. The official was not authorized to speak publicly before the FDA announcement, expected later Wednesday.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman ruled in a New York lawsuit that Bush administration appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to allow over-the-counter access to these pills only for women 18 and older. Korman ordered the agency to let 17-year-olds get the medication, and separately to evaluate whether all age restrictions should be lifted.

Plan B is emergency contraception that contains a high dose of birth control drugs and will not interfere with an established pregnancy. Religious conservatives say it's the equivalent of an abortion pill because it can prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.

The battle over access to Plan B has dragged on for the better part of a decade, through the tenure of three FDA commissioners. Among many in the medical community, it came to symbolize the decline of science at the agency. Top FDA managers refused to go along with the recommendations of scientific staff and outside advisers that the drug be made available over-the-counter with no age restrictions.

"The FDA got caught up in a saga, it got caught up in a drama," said Susan Wood, who served as the agency's top women's health official and resigned in 2005 over delays in issuing a decision. "This issue served as a clear example of the agency being taken off track, and it highlighted the problems FDA was facing in many other areas."

If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, Plan B can reduce a woman's chances of pregnancy by as much as 89%. It contains a high dose of birth control drugs and works by preventing ovulation, fertilization, or the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.

If a woman is already pregnant, Plan B has no effect.

However, social conservatives say that since it can prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg, Plan B is the equivalent of an abortion pill.

The treatment consists of two pills and sells for about $35 to $60. Women must ask for Plan B at the pharmacy counter, and show identification with their date of birth. The drug is made by a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, an Israeli company. It does not prevent sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

Supporters of broader access argued that Plan B was safe and effective in preventing unwanted pregnancy, and could also help reduce the number of abortions.

Opponents, including prominent conservatives, countered that it would encourage promiscuity, and might even become a tool for criminals running prostitution rings, as well as for sexual predators.

Early in the Bush administration, more than 60 organizations petitioned the FDA to allow sales without a prescription. But according to court documents, the issue quickly became politicized.

In 2003, a panel of outside advisers voted 23 to 4 to recommend over-the-counter sales without age restrictions. But top FDA officials told their subordinates that no approval could be issued at the time, and the decision would be made at a higher level. That's considered highly unusual, since the FDA usually has the last word on drug decisions.

In his ruling, Judge Korman said that FDA staffers were told the White House had been involved in the decision on Plan B. The government said in court papers that politics played no role.

In 2005, the Center for Reproductive Rights and other organizations sued in federal court to force an FDA decision.

The following year, the FDA allowed Plan B to be sold without a prescription to adults. But the controversy raged on over access for teens.

Stivvy,

What will they do next...change our currency from "In God We Trust" to "In Science We Trust"?

The administration has been suggesting quite often in the past two months that Science is the deity which it worships.

Now now, Paul, I don't think Sceince is at fault here. Science doens't tll us it smorlaly right to kill innocent babies in he womb, and there is nothign in Sicnece that teaches anythign at all about lettign 17 year lds have the "Mornign After' pill.

Rather, the fault lies in an Ideology, and the Ideology is one of the current Secular Liberalism, rooted in Neo-Marxism.

This is not Sicnece VS God, this is Marxist social planning and values VS God.

I would like to note that it is not the "decision of this country in November" that has allowed this pill to become more widely accessible; we must remember that this pill was approved under the last, "conservative" presidency and it was a judge that ruled on the accessibility to the pill. This judge was also appointed to the bench in 1985 by Republican President Reagan. Just some thoughts and to note I am vehemently against this abortion pill.

If women are taught about their bodies they would be able to read their fertility signs. I don't know why that kind of sex education isn't taught to more women.

Are they going to start passing this pill out to middle school girls at the nurse's station?

Until we can change our society and culture and its sexual influence, until we realize and accept that because of this young people are having sex, nothing will change.

The American Family Association, an Evangelical based group I believe, used to try very hard with boycotts and such to change the entertainment media, because they did not live in a fool's paradise, and they knew what influence entertainment had on us as a culture. The more successes they had, the more Hollywood fought back and became raunchier, more crass and even MORE sexual...Infact, one Hollywood executive was quoted as saying 'we will continue pushing the envelope as much as we can'. That was a decade ago, and they surely lived up to their word. Has anyone ever watched an episode of 'Sex and the City'???

I don't know what this group is doing anymore, but it is obvious they lost. Tipper Gore lost when she tried to change the music industry. Everyone seems to have given up...but atleast they tried, and atleast they realize what exactly is going on in the majority of the country. The Evangelicals are to be applauded at their realization and efforts to change our sexual culture.

With all due respect to everyone here, pretending or denying that this promiscuous high school and college sexual culture doesn't exist, and being shocked that these birth control types of pills exist because teens and young adults are having unprotected, irresponsible, uncommitted sex doesn't help anyone.

Alice, on that I quiet agree. THe real problem wiht our society is not the availability of COntraception and Abortion pills, just as violence isn't caused by the availability of weaponry, but rather the fault lies in ourselves.

We need a society informed by Gods ways into Moral disipline, and that teaches respect for the virtues of said disipline, and instead we try to fix sympoms of problems started because of a lak of Charecter with nband aid solutions.

They just dont get it! It is already an abortion whether its one hour after conception or 36 weeks.
Stephanos I

What I don't understand is how someone could say that the human embryo is not human.