Sex, Drugs, and Politics: Plan B and HPV Vaccine

Welcome to the Bush administration where progess is bad. This may just be because they've branded "Progressives" as bad. In a related note, a concervitave friend of mine refered to himself as a "Progressivbe Republican." Man, that's something I'd ike to hear more often. But, back to the title line. There are two very big things going on in sexual medication right now and it's not a new ED drug. The first is how the FDA has been handling Plan B, an emergency contraceptive, which is trying to be approved for over the counter use. This Emergency Contraception Timeline takes you from July 1999 to September 2005 and is the most complete that I could find. Of particular interest are the following:

(1)December 16, 2003: FDA’s own independent panel of scientific experts votes 23 to 4 to recommend Plan B be made available over-the-counter, with no age restriction. The panel also voted unanimously that Plan B is safe for nonprescription use. January 21, 2005: FDA fails to issue a decision on the Plan B application by the deadline imposed under the federal law governing performance standards for drug approvals. August 26, 2005: Crawford [FDA Commisioner] announces that because of the unique regulatory issues in having the same product sold over-the-counter for one age group and by prescription for another, a public comment period is needed.

That public comment period ended this past Tuesday. The FDA received over 10,000 responses. The current proposal is for the drug to be sold only to those 17 and up over the counter and with a perscription for those aged 16 and under. The drug must be ingested within 72 hrs of unprotected sex and so access is critical. Someties waiting to get a perscription may be waiting too long. So what are the arguments against offering plan B?

(2)The method has become embroiled in the politics of abortion because, while it usually prevents ovulation or fertilization, it may also work after conception, by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting. Social conservatives also argue that making Plan B available over the counter would enable statutory rapists to cover up their abuse, expose women to medical problems, and encourage promiscuity and risky sexual behavior, especially by teenagers.

Without going into the abstinance only education debate, let me say that I believe that there are enough STDs and consequences to having unprotected sex without having to worry about pregnancy. That brings us to the new HPV Vaccine. The human papilloma virus, specifically those types which cause genital warts, have been directly linked to cervical cancer.

(3)Clinical trials for vaccines against the human papilloma virus (HPV), strains of which cause cervical cancer and genital warts in women, show that the medication is nearly 100 percent effective, according to recent company reports and studies published in two leading journals, Nature and the Journal of the American Medical Association. Two separate vaccines are being developed by pharmaceutical giants Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. Cervical cancer afflicts nearly 10,000 women each year, killing 4,000. .... Most public health experts recommend that the vaccine be given to girls at or prior to puberty to reduce the risk of transmission. Some are even recommending making the vaccine a prerequisite for attending school. But religious and other socially conservative groups oppose such policies, fearing that requiring the vaccinations could inadvertently encourage sexual activity.

There's that same argument papping up again. The effects of this are easily seen. Around 75% of cervical cancers could be prevented by this vaccine, that's 3000 women per year and there are people who would want to stop this in the hopes that they're kids won't have sex until mairage. Franky, it's just not worth giving those lives. With the effectiveness of these vaccines, we have the opportunity to effectively wipe out annother disease the way that we did polio. If you thought that the right wing was only going after homosexual freedom, you've been misguided. They're going after heterosexual rights too. Sources: (1) Emergency Contraception Timeline - Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, September 9 (2)Critics' focus on morning-after pill may spur use - Miami Herald, November 2 (3)Cervical Cancer Vaccine Raises ‘Promiscuity’ Controversy - The New Standard, Nov 2 (4)A Vaccine to Wipe Out Cervical Cancer - ABC News, Nov 1 (5)Plan B (0.75mg levonorgestrel) Tablets Information - FDA.gov, August 31