Vermont teens will be able to get emergency contraception over-the-counter despite the FDA’s decision to only provide the drug to adults.

The FDA ruled on Thursday that Plan B, also known as "the morning-after pill," can be sold to women 18 and older without a prescription, but women 17 and younger must still get a doctor's prescription to get the drug.

Nancy Mosher, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said Vermont legislation passed this year set up a third track for acquiring the drug, aside from getting a doctor's prescription or purchasing medicine over the counter.

The bill set up a "collaborative practice" process allowing pharmacists who receive special training to dispense Plan B to women without a prescription. Physicians would issue the pharmacists "standing orders" allowing them to dispense the medication to women who fill out a health screening questionnaire.

This means that that women in Vermont who are 18 or over can go with the FDA ruling allowing them to get EC over-the-counter, and women who are under 17 can just take advantage of this new law. So everybody wins.

And this is why I heart Vermont.

4 Comments

August 29, 2006 10:03 PM

[0+]  Carlie said:

The article also has the clearest, simplest, most accurate explanation of Plan B I've seen anywhere in the media, especially including national "expert" media outlets:

"Plan B is different from the abortion pill, RU-486. RU-486, taken in conjunction with another drug, causes an abortion; Plan B prevents a pregnancy from happening. If a woman already is pregnant, Plan B has no effect."

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August 29, 2006 10:29 PM

[0+]  manda said:

Simple, understandable, honest... no wonder you haven't seen it anywhere else.

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August 30, 2006 9:47 AM

[0+]  Matt Browner-Hamlin said:

This means that that women in Vermont who are 18 or over can go with the FDA ruling allowing them to get EC over-the-counter, and women who are under 17 can just take advantage of this new law. So everybody wins.

This may be an incredibly dumb question, but can men buy Plan B if it's sold over the counter? I'd hazard that it wouldn't make sense to limit who you can sell over the counter contraception to, but both you and the article refer only to the ability of women to buy the drug.

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August 30, 2006 10:30 AM

[0+]  Jessica said:

You know..I have no fucking clue. But that's a really good question. It would seem that men should be able to buy the drug (so long as they over 18), but then I'm sure conservatives would argue that this would help statutory rapists to give young girls EC...I'm going to look in to it.

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