Category: birth control

Federal Judges Overturn Two Indiana Laws

~ Pharmer

Weekend Hidden News

News From AP | TBO.com.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Marie Walton Pratt ruled on Friday (in time for the news to be hidden over the weekend)  to Block portions of the new Indiana abortion law, particularly the part which stopped  state  funding to planned parenthood.   Judge Walton Pratt was nominated by Sen Evan Bayh, and appointed by Obama,  apparently to help carry out the leftist agenda of keeping Indiana’s minority populations under control.

The Indiana Atty. General is likely to appeal.

U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker blocked parts of Indiana’s new immigration law, claiming that immigration is a federal issue.  Judge Sarah Evans Barker, a 1984 Reagan appointee, after a quarter century, is  signaling her readiness to retire, in a manner analogous to that of  Senator Richard Lugar.

Russian Lawmakers Planning Major Abortion Restrictions

~ Pharmer

Russian Lawmakers Prepare For Major Crackdown on Abortion | The Blaze.

Russia suffers from a  depopulation crisis stemming from  low people productivity:  1.4 children per couple is the current fertility rate.

In the past it has had the highest abortion rate in the world, relying on that method as a primary means of birth control.

Russia reports a declining abortion rate from 169 per 100 births in 2000 down to 74 per 100 births in 2009, though these figures most likely omit private abortions, and losses due to use of the morning after pill

Proposed new laws  would require parental and spousal permissions,  introduce a waiting period, and make the morning after pill a prescription only drug.  Free abortions at the government clinics would also be banned.

The abortion restrictions have strong backing from the Russian Orthodox Church.

Pharmacist Conscience Clauses- A Free Review of the Review

~ Pharmer

Hospital Pharmacy – Volume 46 – Number 5 / May 2011 – RxLegal – Pharmacist Conscience Clauses: Continuing Debate – Journal Article.

When the “experts” are called upon to provide commentary in professional Journals, it would help if they research their work sufficiently to write something accurate and useful.

Michael Gabay, Pharm D, JD, BCPS,  has attempted to present the topic of Pharmacists conscience clauses, which have led to legislation excusing pharmacists from dispensing drugs which may operate to kill  a human organism.

Listed below are a few of the troubles with Gabay’s article:

1) The implication that RU-486 contributed to pharmacists’  conscientious objection conflicts.  Mifepristone/misoprostil  regimen was highly regulated, and dispensed by the abortion practitioners themselves, rather than pharmacists.  The article gives no mention of ulipristal acetate, the new analog of mifepristone which is now approved as a morning after pill, doses of which may be accumulated to accomplish a later abortion.  (Way to keep current, Dr. Gabay.)

2) Glaring omissions of significant, current,  judicial decisions.  Dr. Gabay is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Dept. of Pharmacy Practice, University of Illinois, Chicago. Yes, he is in Illinois, a member of the Chicago Bar Association, and inactive member of the Illinois Bar. His article failed to mention the group of lawsuits recently decided  in his own state, involving conscientiously objecting pharmacists and pharmacy owners, Walgreens and former Gov. Blagojevich. It is possible that Dr. Gabay, JD, was not aware of these significant court decisions, or perhaps he did not approve of them.

3) Garbled facts of the K Mart controversy, which actually involved a refusal to dispense progestin-only birth control drugs, not all “oral contraceptives” as the article incorrectly states.

4) Attributing the statement that oral contraceptives can prevent “implantation of a fertilized ovum”, to a person who knew better than that.  Embryology lesson begins  here:  Fertilization of the secondary oocyte, produces an evanescent form called the zygote, that immediately begins cellular division, and proceeds to the next stage.  By the time the human organism reaches the uterus to begin implantation, its embryonic form has differentiated into a blastocyst. (Dr. Gabay forgot the basic  anatomy/physiology stuff which should have been prerequisite to his Pharm D.)

5) Dr. Gabay still appears not to know what Ms. Brauer  knew about the mechanisms of birth control drugs,  and the progestin, norethindrone, in particular. The actual disagreement in the K Mart case is  still readily visible on the net:  Page 1 and Page 2.

6) The crux of ethical objection to dispensing drugs which act, to a significant extent, to stop the life of a human organism is just that.  It is not tied up in the various newer concepts  of “abortion” and “pregnancy” which exclude the early human embryo.  Abusing these terms to obfuscate the issue  violates the patients’ right to give informed consent. The law has established no cogent or consistent basis for determining which human organisms may be willfully  killed and which may not.

The complimentary review and editorializing  will end here, to prevent  reader fatigue.

The take home lesson for users of the literature in science and medicine is to read critically.   Much of it is incomplete and factually “challenged” whether it is primary literature, or review and commentary,  as in the case of Dr. Gabay’s article.

The value of extensive,  formal education (as currently supplied)  is also called into question, as it increasingly appears not to be helping with the quality of intellectual output.

*Note: This commentary has not been subjected to editorial review.

On the Pill? Your Partner Might Not be Smelling the Real You

~ Pharmer

The Tricky Chemistry of Attraction – WSJ.com.

WSJ presents a body of research suggesting that the use of hormonal birth control has affected mate selection in both directions.  Two main factors are possibly  altered.  The natural propensity to select (by smell) more genetically and immunologically different partners is  attenuated by the pill.   Animal studies indicate that signals of female genetic health are possibly attenuated  (and not picked up by males)  in those taking long term progestin birth control.

Females on the pill tend to select more metrosexual men as partners, then tend to feel attractions to OTHER men when they go off the pill and ovulate.    Those not on the pill tend to choose more masculine men as partners, and are less inclined to show an attraction to other men while ovulating.

Bottom line………from data thus far, the use of hormonal contraception  is possibly wussifying humanity, and producing a sort of devolution to a species less genetically diverse and immunologically resilient, by altering the natural chemical bases of attraction.

 

Guttmacher Spokesperson: Use of Morning After Pill increasing but “there’s room for improvement”

~ Pharmer ~ 3 Comments

More U.S. women using “morning-after” pill: study – Yahoo! News.

The above article purports a single mechanism of Plan B, levonorgestrel, to operate by stopping ovulation.  It is known that progestin-only (a class of hormone analogs)  pills perform this job very  poorly, or not at all if taken in the latter third of the fertile period of a human female.   The media claim that this is their only operative mechanism of action would hinge upon extremely poor performance,  a failure rate of  approximately 40 percent per use.

From the Prescribing information of Plan B One-Step:

CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY
12.1 Mechanism of Action
Emergency contraceptive pills are not effective if a woman is already pregnant. Plan B One-Step is believed to act as an emergency contraceptive principally by preventing ovulation or fertilization (by altering tubal transport of sperm and/or ova). In addition, it may inhibit implantation (by altering the endometrium). It is not effective once the process of implantation has begun.

Note that it contradicts the above linked article by mentioning the fact that levonorgestrel affects the endometrium and may act to inhibit implantation.  This stops the life of a human embryo at the blastocyst stage of development, and is one of the bases for controversy concerning dispensing and use of this form of birth control.  Unmentioned in the package insert is that effect on tubal transport also influences the transport of the very early embryo prior to implantation. 

Here’s the quote of the year concerning Plan B:

“It has more than doubled since the last time the data were collected,” said Megan L. Kavanaugh, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute in New York who worked on the study.

However, she said in an interview, “its use still seems relatively low, given that it’s easy to access. So there’s room for improvement.”

Somehow, in the fevered brain of Ms. Kavanaugh  it represents an improvement to fail in the more reliable forms of preventing pregnancy, and require the use of the LEAST reliable modality, the morning after pill, tossed over the counter by the local pharmacist, who could be  censured for attempting to ascertain  clinically appropriate application of the drug.   Kavanaugh credits the media, and not health care professionals, for stimulating the increase in this dependency.  (A tiny silver lining in this cloud.)

The above article suggests that the number of women who require afterthought birth control is on the rise, since the levonorgestrel form of morning after pill has been given over the counter status, and that this is a positive development.   It is one more reason that women should not obtain medical information and advice from the mainstream media.

The prescriber info of Plan B One-Step admits to a failure rate of  16 percent, per use  (which corroborates  the multiple mechanisms of action), and admits to the cumulative problem of failure should a woman rely on the morning after pill  as her main form of birth control.

How does the Guttmacher institute spell “improvement”??  Birth control failure.   It sells abortion.

More Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

~ Pharmer

Bill to Ease Access to Birth Control Introduced | NBC Washington.

Washington DC is pondering over the counter access for birth control pills, other than Plan B.

Pharmacists would dispense them without a prescription, circumventing the need by women to see a physician and have regular exams while on the pill.

This means that more STDs will go undiagnosed until they progress to the more life threatening  pelvic inflammatory disease, and/or cause sterility.

The safety and well being of female patients is not the issue.

EASY ACCESS is the priority.

The Ideological Opponents Bow to Pharmer’s Correctness

~ Pharmer

😉

Planned Parenthood: ‘Personhood’ Amendment a product of ‘radical anti-choice extremists’ | Florida Independent: News. Politics. Media.

“Stephanie Kunkel, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, says her organization is taking the initiative “seriously,” pointing out that the amendment could lead to bans on birth control.”

Yes, the girls at planned unparenthood  acknowledge, after years of denial, the correctness of pharmacists who avoided dispensing various hormonal forms of birth control, in order to avoid involvment in killing humans- very early in development.

Recognizing that humanity is intrinsic, from the very start of development,  would cause BIRTH CONTROL PILLS to be outlawed, they fret.

“If passed, the result would not only ban abortion, but would go so far as to ban most common forms of birth control. … .”

Thank you for acknowledging that hormonal birth control can operate by   interceptive/abortive mechanisms,  GRRRLS.

Camille Paglia swings….. and misses

~ Pharmer ~ 8 Comments

Op-Ed Contributor – No Sex Please, We’re Middle Class – NYTimes.com.

Sometimes the lib-lady gets it, but this time it’s a total miss.   Ms. Paglia tackles the flibanserin, female viagra pill issue, and concludes that middle class white values and ambition are a major factor in killing the sex drive.

Apparently she thinks that need to work for  a living, is bad for a woman’s libido, and she’s finding the main  work place with which she is familiar, to be stifling the desires of women.

Now hear this, Camille…….  the PILL (in general) stifles sex drive, and legions of couples have been leaving it behind for just  that reason.  Pharmer chalks a good deal of trouble to fooling with the chemistry, as well as culturally  marginalizing manhood.

In addition……. those dastardly incurable STDs have been ruining the romantic weekends and setting people off schedule.   Yes……. a hot and steamy  cruise is planned, and what happens???  A condylomatous bloom or herpes outbreak puts a big un-kink in the vacation!

The weekenders only appear spontaneous  in the movies, for your troops, Ms. Paglia.  And any actor will tell you,  that’s the farthest thing from reality.

Pssssst…… Doesn’t it all make you want to move Down on the Pharm?   😉