“Sex sells,” but will safer sex sell-right off drug store shelves?

That question was posed to the Food and Drug Administration on Valentine’s Day when over 60 medical groups and women’s health advocates filed a petition in order to make emergency contraception pills (ECP), also commonly known as “the morning after pill,” accessible over the counter.

ECPs, first approved by the FDA in prescription form in 1997, must be taken within 72 hours to be effective. Advocates for the drug’s crossover into non-prescription status argue that the women who would be most benefited by the drug are often unable to gain access to physicians within the time period necessary for effective results.

“The reality is that accidents don’t just occur during doctor’s office hours. They occur on the weekends when doctors are pretty hard to come by,” Judith DeSamo said, president and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, according to reports from the U.S. Newswire.

The makers of Plan B, a popular brand of ECPs, are set to begin government-sanctioned testing on hundreds of women in hopes of further persuading the FDA of market demand for the pills, according to associated press reports. Proponents hope to see ECPs hit the shelves as soon as next year.

According to information provided by Planned Parenthood, widespread national use of the ECPs could prevent $1.7 million unplanned pregnancies and over 800,000 abortions every year.

“We’d love to see [emergency contraception] go over the counter. It’s very safe. We want to make it as available as possible,” said Dana Blackman, director of education and community development for Planned Parenthood.

“I think that [making the pills accessible without a prescription] would be a good thing. I think it should be more widely available,” said Ashleigh Rouse, a junior at UNCW.

The pills work in the same manner as prescription birth control pills; however, the differences lay in dosing amounts. Most commonly, they prevent the woman from ovulating. If ovulation has already occurred, then the pills work to thicken the cervical mucus to interfere with fertilization and prevent sperm from entering the uterus. However, if fertilization has occurred as well, the ECPs then prevent the fertilized egg from implanting into the uterine lining, thus eventually removing the egg from the body, according Dr. Caroline Clements, assistant professor of psychology, who teaches the university’s human sexual behavior course.

It is this last method of averting pregnancy that most concerns anti-abortion advocates.

“These activists are saying a woman is not pregnant because implantation has not taken place. This deliberately ignores the significant segment of the scientific community and public that hold that life begins at fertilization–not implantation. Abortion advocates are pulling the wool over women’s eyes by obscuring the fact that the morning after pill causes a living human being to die when the [fertilized egg] can not implant in the uterus,” said Dr. David Stevens, Christian Medical Association executive director.

Planned Parenthood, as well as other groups backing the petition, maintains that ECPs are not in any way equivalent to an abortion, asserting that some pro-life activists are misleading the public with such charges.

Others, such as Dr.Albert Abrons, medical director at UNCW, believe that such a move would not provide users with enough information about the ECPs. Users would receive only on a narrow slice of the information they would receive if forced to get a prescription for the pills.

“I have a general prejudice about putting too many things out over the counter. I don’t think that’s a step up. There’s a lot of value in going in and talking to someone you trust, a doctor or a nurse practioner. I feel the same way about emergency contraception,” Abrons said.

He also believes that the amount of research on the drug has not been extensive enough to warrant a move onto drug store shelves.

“I don’t think there’s any scientific information that says there aren’t any complications,” Abrons said.

However, both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Medical Association support giving ECPs over-the-counter status, as Britain and several other European countries have done previously, according to reports from the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation.

“We believe that emergency oral contraception can meet the FDA criteria for over-the-counter availability,” said a spokesperson for ACOG.

Both sides agree that it would be dangerous for women to rely on the drug as their sole form of birth control. The drug’s 75 percent effectiveness rate, while useful as backup, is far lower than the rates of prevention in traditional types of birth control.

Additionally, the drug does not prevent any sexually transmitted disease, including the HIV. Experts on both sides point out women who abuse the ECPs by using them as their only birth control are at a high risk for contracting an STD.

“I don’t think it should be available over the counter. People might stop using condoms and become dependent on [ECP],” said Chris Roberts, UNCW sophomore.

When used excessively, the drug may, like any other hormonally mediated form of birth control, increase the potential risks for some type of cancers and is potentially associated with clotting disorders. However, evidence is still highly debated.

The pills are also thought to interfere with the natural menstrual cycle and produce many of the side effects associated with oral birth control pills, according to Clements.