Easier access sought to 'emergency contraception'

The National television news program has reported that Paladin Labs, the manufacturer of the "morning-after" pill Plan B, is lobbying Health Canada to have the drug made more easily available to women. Paladin would like Plan B sold "over-the-counter," without a doctor's prescription. It is being joined in its efforts by the Society for Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Canadian Pharmacists' Association, who are said to be lobbying Health Minister Anne McLellan.

Plan B is available "over-the-counter" in B.C., Quebec and parts of Toronto through a provincial pilot program. Advocates of the pill claim women must have immediate access to it as "emergency contraception."

Critics of the plan, such as Pharmacists for Life Canada's Michael Izzotti, contend that pharmacists will become the new abortionists, as women use chemical, as opposed to surgical, abortions.

Plan B often works as an abortifacient, killing a newly conceived child by making the mother's uterine lining inhospitable to new life.