National
Desk
| May 19, 2003, Monday
Use of
Morning-After Pill Rising And It May Go Over
the Counter
By KATE ZERNIKE (NYT) 1537 words
Late Edition - Final , Section A ,
Page 1 , Column 1
ABSTRACT
- So-called morning after pill that could
prevent pregnancy comes out of shadows; two
companies distributing drug in United States
are so tiny they could barely afford
advertising, and people who do know about it
often confuse it with RU-486, the abortion
pill; now New Mexico has become fourth state
to allow pharmacists to dispense drug
directly to women, without doctor's
prescription, and legislators or pharmacists
in at least 14 states are agitating to do
same; one company that sells pills, Women's
Capital Corp, has applied to Food and Drug
Adm for permission to sell its pill, called
Plan B, over the counter; other, Gynetics,
says it, too, expects its product, called
Preven, to be sold over counter by end of
next year; new research shows emergency
contraceptive pill can prevent pregnancy
even if taken five days after sex; pills are
essentially birth control pills in higher
doses; they are available over counter in
more than dozen countries; photo (M) For
years, public health advocates were
frustrated that most women did not know
about a drug that could prevent pregnancy
even if taken several days after sex.
Its potential to reduce the abortion rate
was enormous, and opponents of abortion
generally did not oppose it. But that
potential was unrealized, largely because
the two companies distributing the drug in
this country were so tiny that they could
barely afford advertising. People who did
know about it often confused it with RU-486,
the abortion pill.
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