Japan has liberalized the dispensing of the postcoital contraceptive pill by authorizing the pharmaceutical company ASKA to sell its drug NORLEVO without a prescription, thus joining the trend promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The new regulations allow the purchase of the contraceptive without age limits and without requiring parental consent if purchased by minors; however, for safety reasons, users are required to take the pill in the presence of a pharmacist.
This elimination of prescription controls has generated numerous objections, since repeated administration and the existence of contraindications necessitate pharmacotherapeutic monitoring to prevent side effects. Furthermore, the liberalization trend omits from the information provided that the pill’s mechanism of action can be anti-implantation, leading to the loss of embryos.
The pharmaceutical company ASKA has obtained authorization to dispense its postcoital contraceptive pill NORLEVO without a medical prescription.
Until now, these contraceptives could only be obtained with a prescription. Japan is now liberalizing the dispensing of postcoital contraception, eliminating the need for a prescription.
The drug will be sold without age limits and parental consent will not be required if purchased by minors.
For safety reasons, women who buy the morning-after pill will be required to take it in the presence of a pharmacist.
Thus, Japan joins the liberalizing trend that has been established in many countries, sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), which promotes the unrestricted expansion of this type of contraceptive.
As we have previously published, the objections to the unrestricted dispensing of postcoital contraceptives are numerous, and they affect both the woman’s health and the possibility that they may act by ending the life of the early embryo.
The risk of abuse from repeated administration of these pills and the existence of contraindications that advise against their use in certain circumstances make it necessary to control prescription and dispensing to avoid side effects in users.
Furthermore, the information included in the leaflets for these pills unjustifiably omits the possibility that they act through an anti-implantation mechanism rather than anovulatory mechanism in most cases, which implies embryonic losses.
The elimination of any possibility of pharmacotherapeutic control, coupled with biases in the information provided, means that these liberalizing trends lead to health risks for women that are not properly addressed. And to the death of conceived embryos, their children.
