The Debate About Over-the-Counter Emergency Contraceptive Pills

Many prescription drugs have been converted to over-the-counter (OTC) status in recent years. Another drug that has been proposed for OTC status is a levonorgestrel-only emergency contraceptive pill. The debate surrounding OTC access to emergency contraceptive pills echoes issues encountered in prev...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of midwifery & women's health 2005-09, Vol.50 (5), p.423-426
Main Authors: Shi, Chih-Wen, Ganiats, Theodore G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Contraception, Postcoital
Dissent and Disputes
Drug Approval - methods
Drug Evaluation - methods
Drug Evaluation - standards
emergency contraceptive pill
Female
Guidelines as Topic
Health Services Accessibility - legislation & jurisprudence
Humans
Nonprescription Drugs
Nursing
over-the-counter
Pregnancy
Risk Assessment
Rx-to-OTC
United States
women's health
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Many prescription drugs have been converted to over-the-counter (OTC) status in recent years. Another drug that has been proposed for OTC status is a levonorgestrel-only emergency contraceptive pill. The debate surrounding OTC access to emergency contraceptive pills echoes issues encountered in previous reclassification processes and raises new challenges. This article discusses the emergency contraceptive pill, the evolution of its access options, and the context and implications of changing its status from a prescription to an OTC medication.
ISSN:1526-9523
1542-2011
DOI:10.1016/j.jmwh.2004.11.010