Guerilla Gorilla:No Plan B

[It's Friday, and that's means it's time for Guerilla Gorilla. This week, GG turns his attention to reproductive matters.]

I am stumped by humanity. You have the need to control population growth. You have the means to control population growth. And yet you do nothing.

Presented for your consideration are these simple facts:

(1) Plan B is a pill that prevents ovulation after unprotected sex
(2) Plan B lowers the risk of pregnancy by 89%
(3) Plan B is essentially a double dose of a birth control pill
(4) FDA scientists call Plan B the safest product they’ve dealt with in years

And so what does the FDA do? They refuse to approve it. [grunt] They have a stated reason: they claim there's no reliable way to keep it out of the hands of teenagers (there was no similar concern over Prozac or Viagra or anything else depressed impotent crazy right-wing old white men might need).

Susan Wood, the director of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health, resigned last week over this decision, saying “At every level of the review process, we agreed that this was safe, effective, and appropriate for over-the-counter use... It's a denial by delay... I can’t serve as staff when clear evidence is overruled."

What's the reason behind this, then? It appears to many of you humans that there are moral concerns keeping the pill off the shelves -- that it is just another form of baby-killing abortion. Here are the facts, in Wood's words: "Plan B delays ovulation. No matter when you believe life or pregnancy begins, this product is unlikely to ever involve a fertilized egg. It's contraception." She points out that contraception is currently available in all shapes and sizes, for both genders. "It just doesn’t make sense that we couldn’t all agree that selling Plan B in pharmacies is a good thing. It will significantly reduce abortions."

So basically you have the FDA saying they're concerned about children getting access to Plan B, but really responding to the right-wing religious wackos who have decided that for some reason this pill is akin to abortion. Can't you humans get it together? Oh, right -- I saw the footage in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; clearly you hairless apes haven't done all the evolving you need to.

Here's a tip from one poop-thrower to another: stupid species can be recognized by their stupid decisions. [grunt]