Letters to the Editor
celyn
Published Letters: 13 Editor's Choice: 2
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Emergency contraception
[Read the article: Black mark on the red dot?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Knowledge is power. Every woman in the country needs to know that Plan B is just one option for emergency contraception. Regular birth control pills can also be used. I know, I've used them myself. My advice is to get a prescription for standard oral contraceptives to keep on hand in case you run into problems. All but the most extremist pharmacists have birth control pills in stock. Wal-Mart may not stock Plan B, but when the US market for hormonal contraception is $2.5 billion, you can bet they stock birth control pills.
The Emergency Contraception Website (http://ec.princeton.edu/) operated by the Office of Population Research at Princeton University and by the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, says the following US brands of birth control pills can be used for emergency contraception:
Oral Contraceptives used for EC / Progestin Only
Take 40 pills within 120 hours after unprotected sex:
Ovrette
Oral Contraceptives used for EC / Progestin-Estrogen Combined
Note: in 28-day packs, only the first 21 pills can be used
Take 2 pills within 120 hours after unprotected sex and take 2 more pills 12 hours later:
Ogestrel
Ovral
Take 4 pills within 120 hours after unprotected sex and take 4 more pills 12 hours later:
Cryselle
Levlen
Levora
Lo/Ovral
Low-Ogestrel
Nordette
Portia
Seasonale
Take 5 pills within 120 hours after unprotected sex and take 5 more pills 12 hours later:
Alesse
Aviane
Lessina
Levlite
Lutera
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I had the same experience over Labor Day weekend
[Read the article: The real war on Christmas]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My three-year-old daughter, my brother, and I flew back east to my parents' house for a friend's wedding. This was over Labor Day weekend. When we boarded the plane, there had been no food and water drops in New Orleans and Bush was still on vacation. Since my parents have been Rush Limbaugh listeners for years, (I still remember the time, several years ago, when my mother told me about a new cable news network she had started watching because it wasn't "liberal" like CNN), I knew that I needed to avoid any discussion of current events and politics.
The first night we were there, my daughter and I woke up to the sound of my father screaming at my brother at the top of his lungs "You're stupid! You're stupid! You're stupid!" My father, it seems, had decided he wanted to discuss politics after all.
In talking about it afterward, my brother and I realized that the most disturbing part was not the fact that we disagreed about the politics, it was the fact that our father had been conditioned to believe it was acceptable to bully, threaten, and intimidate people. I said, "It's not even about respect. It's about treating us with simple common courtesy." We have since made it clear to him that should he ever behave in that way toward us again, we will immediately remove ourselves from the situation until he is capable of acting like a rational person (As I say with my toddler, "You need to calm your body down now"-- the behavior parallels are amazing).
I've also used the parental blocking feature on my cable box to lock out Fox News on my TV. I may have to do the same to my parents' sets the next time I visit.
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Medical abortion
[Read the article: Do-it-yourself surgical abortions?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Isn't there another form of chemical abortion besides RU-486, or is it the same pill under a different name? Also, up to what point can you use RU-486?
Medical abortion requires the use of 2 medications. Mifepristone is used first and taken orally. It blocks progesterone receptors, mimicking the action of a naturally-occuring miscarriage. 24-48 hours after that, misoprostol (Cytotec-- an ulcer medication also used to induce labor) is inserted vaginally to cause uterine contractions. RU-486 was the original French tradename for mifepristone. The US tradename is Mifeprex.
There are two different protocols for medical abortion in the US. The FDA-approved one allows use up through the 7th week after the start of the last period. The more commonly-used protocol allows use up through the 9th week after the start of the last period. A French study (European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Dec 2005) has found medical abortion effective through 14 weeks. The success rate does go down after 7 weeks though.
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Is mifepristone or misoprostol the problem?
[Read the article: Two more RU-486 deaths]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The second drug used in medical abortion, misoprostol (Cytotec), is also commonly used for inducing labor. There is some controversy surrounding this practice, because when complications occur they tend to be extreme-- uterine rupture, hemmorage, and maternal or fetal death. Given the fact that misoprostol has already been linked to such severe complications, I suspect it's misoprostol (Cytotec) and not mifepristone (Mifeprex/RU-486) that's causing the problems.
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Point of clarification
[Read the article: RU-486 did not cause woman's death]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Medical abortion requires the use of two medications. Mifepristone is always taken first, and always taken orally. Misoprostol (Cytotec) is taken a day or two later and can be taken orally, or inserted vaginally. I'll note that misoprostol is also commonly used in hospital delivery rooms to induce labor. In that setting, doctors generally insert it vaginally, probably because you can get the uterus to start contracting faster if you apply the medication directly to that organ, rather than running it through the digestive system first.
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Bush twins
[Read the article: Bush to widow: "No point" in talking about the war]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'll bet George's daughters did not attend an inner city school or any school system even close to that. They most likely attended expensive private schools.
From what I have been told from friends who live in Austin. The twins did attend public school while their father was governor. They attended the extremely well-funded, rich-kid high school.