plan b

ok, the Totally Weird thing is that last night i had an intense wake-dream about needing to find a pharmacist who would give me plan b. now today, the news cycle is all a-buzz about today's fda long-awaited decision on plan b -- a decision that follows a 3 year saga to make it more broadly available. a bajillion delays were thanks to - surprise, surprise - widespread opposition from the same people who brought you the ban on gay marriage, among other examples of american modernity. the drama spiked last year when a senior fda women's health official resigned because the president's office sticking nubby fingers into the process turned the whole thing political (as if it could ever have remained otherwise). no, it wasn't the fda moral committee undertaking the review, it was the scientific one - but we all know how deeply bush believes in science. the christian right couldn't resist making mountains out of little pills, bringing desperate questions of morals and family into yet another rational conversation about women's health. yet again, sober analysis about women's reproductive health and rights was eclipsed by moralistic foot dragging. as if the american public isn't parched for leadership that can actually leave the scientists to do their work. the women's movement down there is doing their very best, but holy hellfire that is one crazy conservative dogma to fight.

here's what i'm thinking: emergency contraception - as if its radically different from plain ol' regular contraception - should never have been called plan b. maybe that's where we went wrong. it should have quietly been named 'nextdayva' or even better, plan 'None of Your Fucking Business'.

so at least american women can get plan b over the counter, though NOT if they're under 18. oh ya, and pharmacists still don't even have to sell plan b, prescription or not. ok, so some of this is good news, but the new rules mean young women still need to go to a doctor before getting it, and even then, they have to find some seedy godless pharmacist who'll dare dispense it. jesus.

btw, we squeaked it in last year before the elections, and without any arbitrary age restriction.