The FDA last month approved emergency contraceptive Plan B for over-the-counter use, and University of Virginia Student Health Center will sell the drug that way as soon as the product is repackaged. Student health officials and local Planned Parenthood workers are bracing for the political fallout of the drug becoming more available.
“Certainly we are anticipating a backlash, so we are alerting our clinic staff of that,” says Becky Reid, grassroots organizer with Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge. “The other thing we anticipate are anti-E.C. pieces of legislation in the General Assembly. They have attempted to remove emergency contraception from college, they’ve tried to pass mandatory delay and pharmacy refusal bills which would allow pharmacists to refuse based on ideological reasons.”
Pharmacist refusal is a concern, Reid says, because, although Plan B will be available OTC, it will still be behind the pharmacist’s counter. “We are concerned there will be more pharmacy refusal incidents,” Reid says, because patients won’t have the legitimacy of a prescription from a doctor.
Students 18 and over shouldn’t have any trouble at the UVA pharmacy, says Dr. Christine Peterson, director of gynecology at Student Health. Patients at Student Health can already get a prescription over the telephone 24 hours a day, Peterson says. Currently, doses cost about $12-18 at the pharmacy.
Peterson doesn’t anticipate Plan B’s over-the-counter status will have any effect on students’ sexual behavior. “I’m sure there will be people who disagree with the FDA’s decision to let the medication go OTC. There’s been several studies done that show this doesn’t seem to have any effect at all on sexual behavior. We’ve had it readily available since 1988.”
Student health pharmacists say the repackaged Plan B will be available in early 2007.
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