http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/04/20/pill-emergency050420.html

OTTAWA - Women in Canada should soon have access to the morning-after pill without a doctor's prescription.

The drug levonorgestrel, sold under the brand name Plan B, has been approved for sale directly from pharmacies, Health Canada confirmed Wednesday.

The drug will be kept behind the counter.

It is considered 95 per cent effective at preventing unintended pregnancy if taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex, but has no effect on an established pregnancy.

The drug prevents pregnancy by preventing embryos from attaching to the wall of the uterus.

Health Canada's move follows British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Quebec, where women can already access the contraceptive without a prescription.

Last month, researchers in B.C. found use of emergency contraception had doubled in the province since the pill became available without a prescription.

Under new federal rules, pharmacists will have to offer counselling about side-effects such as nausea and vomitting, sexually transmitted diseases and contraception to women requesting the drug.

Dr. Judith Soon of UBC, author of the study, noted a change to over-the-counter status would increase access but could also make it harder to track use of the drug, especially for government and employer health plans.

It is up to the provinces and territories to decide if they wish to move further and remove all restrictions on the drug, allowing women to access it without the help of the pharmacist.

Medical authorities, including the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Pharmacists Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Canadian Nurses Association, all supported Health Canada's move to not require a prescription for the emergency contraception.

Mary Ellen Douglas of Campaign Life Coalition said she's upset no one will discuss any moral concerns with girls seeking the drug.

"I can't believe these girls are going to be intensely concerned about what they're taking," said Douglas. "They're going to be thinking, 'I acted irresponsibly and I must make sure my mother doesn't find out. Now give me the pill.'"

Dr. Donna Stewart of the Ontario Women's Health Council said in Britain, where the drug has been available for 20 years, there has been no increase in women forgetting to use condoms to protect against sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS.

RU486, a drug that terminates pregnancy, is not approved for use in Canada.

I am liking it up there more and more.

And a huge sigh of relief is heard throughout the land.

We'll have it eventually OTC in America. I can't wait, I get really annoyed having to prescribe it to stupid biatches. Let'em get it themselves without having to involve me.

Many of the docs in my group won't even prescribe it.

We'll have it eventually OTC in America. I can't wait, I get really annoyed having to prescribe it to stupid biatches. Let'em get it themselves without having to involve me.

Many of the docs in my group won't even prescribe it.
Some neo-con your are! :D

Vince

Doc, just prescribe birth control pills and tell the biatches to take two at a time twelve hours apart. If you hate 'em so much don't give them anything for the nausea. One pack of pills will take care of 10 mornings-after.

Doc, just prescribe birth control pills and tell the biatches to take two at a time twelve hours apart. If you hate 'em so much don't give them anything for the nausea. One pack of pills will take care of 10 mornings-after.
Same thing.

We'll have it eventually OTC in America. I can't wait, I get really annoyed having to prescribe it to stupid biatches. Let'em get it themselves without having to involve me.

Many of the docs in my group won't even prescribe it.

sigh
:rolleyes:

The drug levonorgestrel, sold under the brand name Plan B, has been approved for sale directly from pharmacies, Health Canada confirmed Wednesday.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/04/20/pill-emergency050420.html (http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/04/20/pill-emergency050420.html)

I'm sure that there are many who take this to mean that Plan B is now Plan A.

I'm sure that there are many who take this to mean that Plan B is now Plan A.
Not at all likely. The morning after pill causes pretty severe nausea; it's a fairly strong deterrent factor in deciding to make Plan B one's routine method of birth control.

I just read in Newsweek that some pharmacists in Illinois are refusing to fill the prescriptions for Plan B. There is about to be some state government intervention in that situation.

I wouldn't be surprised if other states have the same problem. Pharmacists actually have some power to deny certain prescriptions.

And Paris Hilton is apparently one who uses Plan B on occasion, per her hacked PDA.

I just read in Newsweek that some pharmacists in Illinois are refusing to fill the prescriptions for Plan B. There is about to be some state government intervention in that situation.

I wouldn't be surprised if other states have the same problem. Pharmacists actually have some power to deny certain prescriptions.

And Paris Hilton is apparently one who uses Plan B on occasion, per her hacked PDA.
Prob. because of these people like Shawn Hannity who call it the abortion pill and dont even want to take the time to see what it is really all about. :rolleyes:

I just read in Newsweek that some pharmacists in Illinois are refusing to fill the prescriptions for Plan B. There is about to be some state government intervention in that situation.

I wouldn't be surprised if other states have the same problem. Pharmacists actually have some power to deny certain prescriptions.
This has been going on for quite some time now... the pharmacists claim that they're not going to fill a prescription for an "abortifacient", and that Plan B qualifies as one because it prevents the implantation of a fertilized egg. They're just another bunch of religion-blinded idiots who can't tell the difference between a microscopic ball of a dozen cells and a human baby.

If you find these "professionals" using their own religious beliefs to justify blocking a woman from obtaining a drug prescribed for her by her own physician as unprofessional and unacceptable as I do, please sign this petition. (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/792375278?z00m=23086&z00m=23086&ltl=1114052673)

If you find these "professionals" using their own religious beliefs to justify blocking a woman from obtaining a drug prescribed for her by her own physician as unprofessional and unacceptable as I do, please sign this petition. (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/792375278?z00m=23086&z00m=23086&ltl=1114052673)
If that pharmacist doesn't want to fill it, who cares? They can go to another pharmacist. I'm all for freedom of expression, don'tcha know?

If that pharmacist doesn't want to fill it, who cares? They can go to another pharmacist. I'm all for freedom of expression, don'tcha know?

People should not be legally protected from not doing their job. If you own your own pharmacy and don't want to fill a prescription, fine. If your boss is okay with you not filling prescriptions, fine. But there is no need for a law on the books to protect a pharmacist from filling prescriptions he doesn't want to fill.

If you don't want to fill prescriptions, don't become a pharmacist.

They already have the right to not fill prescriptions to drug abusers. If they get a guy coming in with his 10th vicodin prescription from 8 different doctors in the last 3 months, a smart pharmacist is not only not going to fill it, but will contact the physicians as well and notify them that they are prescribing to drug abusers.

It's still a valid prescription the abuser presents with, but it's in the pharmacist's discretion to not fill it. And HIPPA does not protect these scumbags; I call pharmacists all the time to get recent narcotic prescription lists on suspected abusers. And they have NEVER turned me down.

I'm starting to like Canada. Once you sell beer at gas stations and liquor stores, I might move there.

I'm starting to like Canada. Once you sell beer at gas stations and liquor stores, I might move there.
Beer at liquor stores? :confused: Around here (Alberta), you've been able to buy beer there for years. And since there's nearly as many liquor stores as gas stations - it sounds like it's time to move on up! :cool:

Regards,
Gordon

If that pharmacist doesn't want to fill it, who cares? They can go to another pharmacist. I'm all for freedom of expression, don'tcha know?
Some of these wonderful God-fearing self-rightous scumbags won't even give the prescription paper back to the woman so she can go somewhere else. How much more demeaning can you get?

I would think that doctors prescribing morning after pills would have some clue which pharmacies are problematic and gently steer their patients away from them when they hand out the prescriptions. But, then again, maybe this nicety is beneath their dignity.

All they have to do is go to a national chain like Walgreens, Eckerd, or CVS. The chains even give forged/altered narcotic prescriptions back to perps after I ask them to call the police and have the criminal arrested for the felony alteration of a narcotic Rx. One guy wrote "8oz" above my computer-printed (typed) prescription for "100mL" of cough syrup. I told the pharmacist to tear it up, which he didn't.

They aren't going to make a stand like that. They give the Rx back and let them go somewhere else, in my experience.

So Rx-8 is code for swallowing the pill...