This week marks a full year that since the FDA decreed that Plan B emergency contraception could be sold over-the-counter without a doctor's prescription to women age 18 and older. (The new status actually went into effect a few months later, in November 2006.)
But on the anniversary of the day we "won" the EC over-the-counter battle, it's a good time to ask, where should our EC activism go from here?
-- Ensuring access for servicewomen.
-- Expanding access to teenagers.
-- Making it a major issue in the '08 presidential race.
-- Continuing to fight pharmacist refusals.
-- Holding the media accountable when they spread misinformation about EC.
-- Encouraging all the women you know to back up their birth control.
UPDATE: Planned Parenthood made a video to promote EC awareness:
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Oh my. Clearly I need to quadruple my donations if those production values are the best PP can do. But I kid because I love. Go EC!
Oh I love it, low production values and all! Am so amused. Thank you for sharing this, Feministing!
Expanding access to teenagers is probably number one on my list. I have a friend who could've used it a couple weeks ago.
Omg I so Fucken L O V E the commercial. Unfortunately, I cannot listen to it at work, but just watching it made my evening lol
Woo hoo for Plan B's over-the-counter Anniversary!
That is not the strangest thing I've ever seen, because I have friends the cruise YouTube for fun, but damn...
This ad made me laugh out loud - and then everyone at the office had a giggle too :)
(Insert Beavis and Butthead-style chuckle) They used the term "sticky situation" while showing sperm. Love it.
Plan B seriously saved my life. I wouldn't be in college right now if I hadn't got it. While it took me 5 hours to get the prescription and I had to go through 2 hospital and 2 doctors and 2 different Walgreens to get it, it was entirely worth it. But now, if I want it all I have to do is find the decent pharmacist out there that will give it to me and pony up the money and my ID woo!
I went back to one of those old posts on Plan B, and people were saying that it doesn't actually inhibit implantation of the zygote, so the moral debate is even dumber than we thought. But I searched for some studies on it and I've found a few that say they did find a postfertilization effect, ie, that Plan B does somewhat inhibit implantation. Did I just happen to come across biased studies? Does anybody have information on this? I wouldn't be against it if it did inhibit implantation, but it would be nice to know if it didn't so I could tell people.
The commercial is cute, but on another level is sort of disturbing to me--the imagery of men-as-sperm chasing a woman through the streets, and the EC-man protecting her seems a wee bit too much of a victim mentality to me.
Am I reading too much into it?
judgesnineteen-
From the reading I have done, they are not really sure exactly how Plan B works. That used to bother me until I learned that a lot of fertilized eggs naturally don't implant. That was new information for me and now I don't see the issue with it. Also, some of the other hormonal contraceptives work the same way. I'd sure hate to eliminate all the hormonal options like the pill or the IUD, that women have access to. To me what's important is that it keeps young women (like LindsayPW) from getting pregnant. LindsayPW-I'm so sorry it was such a hassle for you to get ec when you needed it, but I'm glad you did! Personally, I think that keeping a baby out of your tummy is more important than saving a little tiny sperm that managed to get inside an egg!
jpjesus- I had the same first reaction to the video. (I de-lurked to tell you you're not crazy!) I also thought it was kind of weird that the badass EC pill was a man...I mean, the sperm being men sort of made sense, but EC is something women take to protect themselves. Couldn't she have just become a ninja from the school of EC or something?
If I got to make a commercial based on my EC experience, the first part would be a few seconds showing a young college woman who is obviously feeling pretty ill, along with a voice/scroll-over saying "a few hours of this..." The second part would be a montage of the woman having morning sickness, dropping out of college, living in a trailer, surrounded by screaming children, etc. along with "or 18-plus years of this?"
Then back to the college student taking the last EC pill in the course, puking in the sink, fishing out the pill and sending it back down the hatch. She grins with relief and says "yeah, it's totally worth it."
Probably not the most positive commercial, but totally based on reality! (It WAS so worth it.)
'Couldn't she have just become a ninja from the school of EC or something?'
I'd prefer that too, carmelised.. and real works everytime when transforming stuck consciousness, ambidextrous...