Agree - there is no reason that the Pill should require a yearly prescription. It should be over the counter, but if it must require a prescription then prescriptions should be good for 5 years - not 1 (which usually only equates to 11months anyway while insurance only pays for a yearly visit).

Disagree. The pill can have serious side effects, especially for women over 30. You can't just give a woman a 5 year script and send her off for half a decade. There are too many health issues that can come up in that time.

However, access and availability need to be secured for all women and not hampered because someone else, who isn't going to be directly effected by the choices a woman makes, has some personal objection irrelevant to her situation.

Because what would the American Taliban right wing nut faction have to whine about then? (The birther stuff is so...yesterday.)

So Fred, every time a man has sex, he deserves to get a woman pregnant?

Can you even read this all the way back in the stone age?

Are you kidding, they've already started. There are already pharmacists who don't want to sell Plan B because of their religious objections.

I would hope that if they can drive to the store to go buy it, that they would already know how to read. There's no reason to not have it over the counter, unless of course the goal is to provide humiliation (a.k.a. "instruction and counseling") and discourage the sale of it. Be real- they can read on the packaging about the side effects and drug interactions.

I watched a couple buy Plan B while I was waiting for a prescription. It was like the were buying something with ephedrine. I think they have to take the woman's info, to make sure she's not taking it too frequently. There could be some health risks. The staff didn't offer "instruction and counseling" or humiliation, they just scanned the driver's license and rang it up, just like any cashier would do. On a side note, I was very impressed that it was a couple buying it, not just the woman.

Angie- I totally agree with you concerning teaching our kids all about the different forms of birth control that is available. We, the parent s are front liners, so to speak.

However, I am not confortable with it being behind the counter due to side effects. Tylenol, motrin etc all have some side effects associated with them. I think having it out on the shelves with the other contreceptives is a good idea. Condoms used to be behind the counter at one time and due to embarassment, too many people, male and females, would not purchase them.