Emergency contraception

doi:10.1136/bmj.38960.672998.80

BMJ 2006;333:560-561 (16 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.38960.672998.80

Editorial

Emergency contraception

Is it worth all the fuss?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Emergency contraception can prevent pregnancy after unprotectedsex, but it can also cost you your job. In 2005 an assistantcommissioner resigned from the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) in the United States after a decision to make emergencycontraception available off prescription was postponed indefinitely,despite two committees recommending it (after three years' delaythe FDA has recently approved over the counter sales, with restrictions,of the emergency contraceptive Plan B).¹ In 2006 two editorsof the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) were fired,partly because they published an article about access to emergencycontraception in Canadian pharmacies.² Emergency contraceptionhas been described as "the latest battleground in an ideologicallydivided America."³ It has always been a battleground, but isit worth all the fuss?

First used in the early 1970s, emergency contraception was awell kept secret until the late 1990s. At this time interest. . . [Full text of this article]

Anna Glasier, director

Lothian Primary Care NHS Trust, Edinburgh EH4 1NL
(anna.glasier@lpct.scot.nhs.uk)

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