There's been lots of blogging and ranting about the FDA and its refusal to approve the emergency contraception Plan B. I've also blogged myself about how a different bit of the federal government is being taken over by faith-based policy-makers who only want to fund what they deem to be be righteous. So... here we are again.
Acting FDA Deputy Commissioner for Operations, Janet Woodcock (could I possibly have made that up???) has these fears about Plan B: "we could not anticipate or prevent extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an 'urban legend' status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of Plan B." You couldn't anticipate it or you clearly do anticipate it? If you can anticipate it, why can't you prevent (or at least mitigate) it? And sex cults based on teenagers' misinformation about sex? Have you actually met any teenagers? They don't need cults to spread misinformation or to be fixated on sex. What's so horrible about giving them (or... you know.... adult women) the option of not conceiving?
So, okay, she's just blathering. I do a certain amount of that myself. What's really the problem here? Plan B contraception has nothing to do with a fertilized egg. It works by preventing the ovaries from releasing an egg for a short while, so there is nothing to fertilize. Therefore, the typical pro-life fertilized-egg-as-baby argument has nothing to do with this situation. So that's not it. And if we're not protecting babies, what are we doing?
Really, is there an option other than controlling women? I can't think of one, and I tried. And controlling women through our reproductive potential is hardly news, especially when you link it to the recent news from the CDC that all women between menarche and menopause should treat themselves as pre-pregnant and take prenatal vitamins. As my friend Elisa says (sarcastically), "the health of a potential fetus should be your priority if you're a woman."
Just..... yuck.
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