5-day pill moves emergency contraception back to doctor's office :: Aug. 30, 2010 ... American Medical News

amednews: 5-day pill moves emergency contraception back to doctor's office :: Aug. 30, 2010 ... American Medical News: When the Food and Drug Administration approved Plan B in 1999, some doctors objected on moral grounds to prescribing the emergency contraceptive. Much of the controversy faded when Plan B went to over-the-counter status in 2006. Today, the drug is available OTC for women 17 and older, but younger patients still need a prescription.

Now that the FDA has approved ella (ulipristal acetate), a prescription-only emergency contraceptive, the debate about whether to prescribe such drugs is moving back to the doctor's office. With it comes ethical and legal questions for physicians, particularly those who object to emergency contraception for various reasons.

Some employed physicians were pressured by their employers to offer Plan B when it was a prescription-only drug. Doctors may take issue with the similarities between ella and RU-486. Most ethicists agree that physicians who consider contraception immoral do not need to provide emergency contraceptives. Instead, they can refer patients to physicians who will prescribe such drugs. If a patient requests ella during an office visit, he said a physician should tell her, with compassion and sensitivity, "This is something I can't participate in."