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Plan B Pill Dangers Further Highlight Safety of NFP

GLENVIEW, IL (MetroCatholic) – The looming problem with Plan B and other hormone-based birth control methods is seen as a reason by many to look into other forms of family planning, including Natural Family Planning.

Concerning Plan B, David Hager, a gynecologist from Lexington, Ky., told CBS News, “I was concerned about 10, 11, 12-year-old girls buying this product…. I’m saying that it is possible that with the use of Plan B the individual may put herself at greater risk.”

Hager, who testified about the drug at the FDA hearings, is one of many critics who point to various dangers of the drug, released in 2006, whose effects are not yet fully known. On April 22, the FDA, responding to a March 23 court order, lowered the age for over-the-counter sales from 18 to 17. At the same time that the age was lowered, the FDA allowed the drug to be taken in a single dose instead of in two dosages.

Initially advertised as “emergency contraception,” Plan B’s dosage as a single pill is 10 times higher than that of normal oral contraceptives. The pill uses the same hormones as oral contraceptives that have been taken on a daily basis since their availability since the 1960’s, the safety of which has been called into question by many experts.

Pregnancy counselors are seeing many women taking the more powerful Plan B not just occasionally, but several times per year. Largely unregulated, since it does not require a prescription by a doctor, Plan B, distributed by Duramed Pharmaceuticals, is also being obtained by underage teenage girls who get it from their older friends.

Duramed admits on its website that the product could cause “nausea, abdominal pain, fatigue, headache, changes in one’s period, dizziness, and breast tenderness.”

Furthermore, if a woman is already pregnant for a number of days when she has intercourse and then takes Plan B, the drug will not end the pregnancy. The fetus is therefore subject to deformity and the woman risks health problems. Duramed says, “If you have severe abdominal pain, you may have an ectopic pregnancy [outside the womb], and should get immediate medical attention.”

Couples in the Chicago area are invited to try Natural Family Planning, which has no chemical side-effects and has proved by studies to be as effective as artificial means in avoiding pregnancy.

Classes in the Sympto-Thermal Method of Natural Family Planning can be taken at 15 locations in the Chicago, IL Archdiocese, as well as in southeast Milwaukee and northwest Indiana. The next class will begin Sun., Aug. 9 at Holy Trinity Church in Westmont. Go to www.nfpchicago.com.

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