Plan B, also called the "morning after pill" is an emergency contraceptive. Some pharmacists have refused to stock and fill the prescription, citing ethical reservations, causing the AMA to affirmatively state its support for the contraceptive and urge pharmacists to sell it and for the FDA to allow over-the-counter distribution. A partial victory was achieved in 2006 to allow OTC dispensing without a doctor's note for those over 18 years of age. However, some pharmacists continued to refuse to fill the prescription, including the owners of Ralph's Thriftway pharmacy chain in Washington State in 2006, causing some to boycott the chain. Ralph's was later found by the Washington State Board of Pharmacy to have violated the state pharmacy code in so doing. Ralph's lawsuit to block the ruling reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which has now ruled against the pharmacy chain, saying ALL pharmacists must stock and dispense the contraceptive. [more inside]
posted by darkstar on Jul 10, 2009 - 453 comments

Millions of women have had abortions and didn't even know it.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese on Aug 10, 2008 - 172 comments

The Pill - 45 years ago this month, the contraceptive pill was approved by the FDA for U.S. public release, a watershed point for women, providing a prescription for equality. However, it was illegal for single women to use the pill until the 1972 Supreme Court decision of Eisenstadt v. Baird. Ex-boxer Bill Baird was an unlikely contraceptive crusader. His efforts earned imprisonment, death threats, and the enmity of many feminists. He continues his crusade today because, unfortunately, the right to contraceptives is still not a freedom we can take for granted. - more -
posted by madamjujujive on May 10, 2005 - 46 comments

A new Texas bill seeks to give pharmacists the right to object to dispensing emergency contraceptives. The bill was spurred by over a year's worth of debate about an incident in Denton where a rape victim was denied a morning-after pill by a pharmacist at Eckerd's. Supporters say that pharmacists should be able to opt out of dispensing drugs that are used for abortions, but the opposition points out that the bill's definition of emergency contraceptives can be construed to include all birth control. Should pharmacists be allowed to morally object, or is this an anti-birth-control boondoggle?
posted by rush on Apr 12, 2005 - 118 comments

Charles Kellogg was born in 1868 in California and claimed to have the larynx of a bird (called a syrinx). Until his death in 1949, he lectured and entertained audiences as a performer of bird calls. He travelled across the continent in the Travel Log, a mobile home carved from a single Redwood log mounted on a 1917 Nash Quad truck chassis. In 1939, he smuggled samples of the Kakaula plant out of Fiji in hopes of providing birth control leader Margaret Sanger with the perfect contraceptive.
posted by 327.ca on Mar 21, 2005 - 4 comments

A bill is currently being pushed through Congress that will give health care providers, including those that are federally funded, the right to refuse to perform abortions or administer contraceptive medication for personal moral reasons. Next week: firefighters allowed to let houses burn down because they hate the color of the curtains.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Sep 25, 2002 - 72 comments

The Website of Anti-Porn Guy Welcome to my site! My name is David McNamara and I am 19 years old. I have 2 cats and I am a senior at Royal Palm Beach High School in Royal Palm Beach, Florida......I want to ban pornography with a 10-year prison term for viewing or participating in pornography, as well as oral and anal sex with a 1-5 year prison term for oral sex and a 1-10 year term for anal sex. I also want to ban the manufacture and sale of contraceptives (birth control) with a prison term of up to 1 year in jail and/or a fine of up to $5,000 for violating this ban. None of these laws will be retroactive. Wonder what he's doing now - his site was last updated 12-10-00. Discuss? Dismiss?
posted by Corky on Jul 25, 2002 - 52 comments