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EDITORIAL: Plan B: Protect Women Girls: Protect Women Girls

Posted on: Monday, 15 May 2006, 09:03 CDT

By The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

May 15--Incredibly, about four-fifths of West Virginia druggists won't sell "morning after" birth-control pills to women and teen-age girls -- partly because of narrow sexual taboos.

We think their attitude is sadly mistaken, backward and uninformed.

Health reporter Morgan Kelly outlined results of a survey conducted by a women's rights group, West Virginia FREE. Callers phoned 214 Mountain State pharmacists, seeking to fill a Plan B prescription, and were turned down by 81 percent. Some of the druggists said they might order Plan B pills, but don't stock them. Others said after-sex birth control violates their religious beliefs.

One druggist implied that girls worried about pregnancy should have babies and put them up for adoption. Several claimed -- erroneously -- that morning-after pills are a form of abortion.

Actually, Plan B is merely a large dose of regular birth-control medication. If taken within three days after intercourse, it stops ovulation or prevents fertilized eggs from adhering to the side of the uterus, letting them flush out as many such eggs do naturally. (Some conservative theologians contend that a soul is created the moment an egg is fertilized, thus all flushed-out eggs are lost human lives. But most Americans don't share this simplistic view.)

"When you start injecting religious doctrine into medicine, it's a big problem," WV FREE Director Margaret Chapman told reporter Kelly. She added: "West Virginians want their prescriptions filled without judgment." Amen.

In March, Wal-Mart began selling Plan B in its 3,700 pharmacies nationwide. We assumed this step would spur other West Virginia drug stores to do likewise. But it hasn't happened yet, evidently.

Monday, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, representing 50,000 U.S. specialists, announced a plan to save women and girls from unwanted pregnancies. During every office visit, the doctors will ask patients if they want advance prescriptions for Plan B, so the pills may be obtained and stored for possible future need.

This is a humanitarian strategy to prevent young women from being caught in a predicament that drives many of them to seek pregnancy termination. Thus, morning-after pills don't cause abortions -- they prevent them.

We hope that pressure from Wal-Mart and medical specialists finally prods hidebound West Virginia druggists into filling prescriptions that rescue girls.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

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Source: The Charleston Gazette

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