Morning-After Pills Available Online
March 6, 2001 -- At a time when it's easy to obtain anything just by logging on, the newest rush to the Web is for the "morning-after pill."
The emergency birth control pill is currently available through two Planned Parenthood branches and at least one for-profit site.
Advocates for the practice of making the pill available online say it helps speed up the process for patients who need to take it within 72 hours of sexual intercourse for the pill to be effective. But detractors argue that obtaining any prescription drug on the Web is not good medical practice.
For $40 to $75, a user can fill out an application online, which a nurse practitioner or physician then reviews. They will then write a prescription and either electronically mail it to you or to a pharmacy. The prescription can be available within minutes. As of now, it is available online through the Illinois and Georgia Planned Parenthood branches and a few commercial medical sites like VirtualMedicalGroup.com.
"It comes in handy for when we have a real blip in our ability to service over the weekend and holidays when we aren't open," said Vasyl Markus, vice president for public policy for Planned Parenthood in Chicago. "These are the times when the need for this pill is really strong, after weekends, holidays, long weekends."
Pill in Every Medical Cabinet
Both Planned Parenthood branches have nurse practitioners and physicians on call during weekends to take the online applications and process them for the emergency contraception pill. (The hormone pills are commonly known as the "morning-after pill," but are known to physicians as Plan B and Preven.
The morning-after pill prevents ovulation or, if it has already occurred, blocksimplantation of a fertilized egg. A report by the American Medical Association's Council onMedical Service suggests that women might not be able to get thepills in time to prevent a pregnancy unless they're made availableover-the-counter.
The application and consent form asks for the patient's medical history including name, age, address and recent sexual history. Since the treatment is only effective if taken 72 hours after sexual intercourse, the pill's availability on the Web is a major plus for women, advocates say.
"The sooner the patient gets this, the better," said Kay Scott, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Georgia. "It's also a great opportunity for us to get in touch with people who might not usually come to us and say 'maybe you need a regular method of contraception,'" Scott said. "We feel that if every woman in America had this in their medical cabinet on an ongoing basis, we would see an extraordinary decrease in unwanted pregnancies."
Opponents, however, say obtaining any prescriptions through Web sites eliminates the all important doctor visit and consultation. Medical boards and state pharmacy boards have expressed their concern about the growth of online sales of prescription drugs.
On July 30, Jodie Bernstein, director of the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Consumer Protection testified before a House Subcommittee about the benefits and risks of online pharmacies.
During her testimony she described two efforts by FTC staff to purchase prescription drugs online. Both efforts were successful even though in one case the staff listed a "patient's" medical history that should have raised serious concerns about the appropriateness of issuing a prescription. In both cases, staff of the Commission were issued a prescription for Viagra online with no questions asked.
Advocates Push for Over-the-Counter Status
Accepted medical practice is that a physician sees a patient, takes a medical history and then prescribes medicine, according to an AMA spokesperson. No one has a clear grasp of the scope of the phenomenon, but some experts estimate that about 400 such instant prescription Web sites exist, with half based overseas, according to the AMA.
In 1999, the AMA published a policy statement on prescribing drugs over the Internet in response to Viagra's popularity on the Web. In the policy report, the AMA says that "prescribing drugs without physically examining a patient or reviewing his or her medical records is, in most cases, practicing medicine at a level far below the acceptable standard of medical care."
The Federation of State Medical Boards agreed in their written policy, saying: "Prescribing of medications by physicians based solely on an electronic medical questionnaire clearly fails to meet an acceptable standard of care and is outside the bounds of professional conduct."
For their part, Planned Parenthood believes the morning-after pill, should be offered as an over-the-counter drug, not subject to the same standards as prescription drugs. They say the pills are safe to prescribe without a doctor's visit.
"Without much marketing or publicity we have filled over 200 prescriptions since we started in December," said Markus. "It's simply another way to make the medication more accessible. It makes sense."
Last month, more than 60 health and advocacy groups petitioned the Federal Drug Administration to grant emergency contraception non-prescription status.