Birth Control Devices

Using diaphragms in addition to condoms provides no extra protection against the AIDS virus, researchers reported Friday in the journal Lancet. Researchers gave 5,045 women in South Africa and Zimbabwe an HIV-prevention package that included condoms; some received diaphragms as well. But the incidence of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS was the same in both groups, around 4%.

The school board approved a proposal Wednesday for pupils at a city middle school to be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health center. The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades six through eight, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

At least once a day, a teenage girl walks into North High School's health clinic, wanting to find out whether she's pregnant. Frequently, it turns out she is. The city's teen birth rate is more than double the statewide rate of 24.3 births per 1,000 girls age 15 to 17, and Denver school officials are considering a proposal to dispense contraceptives in its six high-school-based health clinics, which serve the district's most impoverished students.

The last two appointees to head the FDA were closely involved in decisions to overrule the agency's medical reviewers and block the "morning-after" birth control pill from being sold without a prescription, according to court transcripts to be released today. Last year, Lester M. Crawford personally took the decision away from his top subordinates, according to depositions of two senior Food and Drug Administration officials.

Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed a modified request with U.S. regulators to sell its "morning-after" emergency contraceptive pill without a prescription. Neither the Food and Drug Administration nor Barr would say what changes the company made to its application for the pill, called Plan B. The FDA this month said it was prepared to quickly approve Plan B if Barr increased the age it proposed for over-the-counter sales from 16 to 18 and met other conditions.

At least 850 women in Southern California are being notified by letter that their physicians are being investigated for allegedly illegally obtaining contraceptives from unlicensed Internet- or Mexico-based vendors, state health officials said. The contraceptive, known as an intrauterine device or IUD, is made of plastic or metal and is placed within the uterus. Though widely used worldwide, less than 1% of women who use contraceptives in the United States choose that method.

Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed a bill that would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to provide emergency contraception if doing so conflicted with their moral or religious beliefs. Napolitano, who supports abortion rights, said in her veto letter to lawmakers that pharmacies and other healthcare providers "have no right to interfere with the lawful personal medical decisions made by patients and their doctors."

The Today Sponge, once the most popular female over-the-counter contraceptive in the country, is coming back on the U.S. market after 10 years in limbo. The Food and Drug Administration has approved sale of the contraceptive and it will be available soon on the website of its manufacturer, Allendale Pharmaceuticals Inc. Company president Gene Detroyer said Friday that the Today Sponge should be in stores this summer.

In a sharply critical ruling, a Nebraska federal district judge said Union Pacific Corp. illegally discriminated against female employees by barring prescription contraceptive coverage from its health plans -- even as it underwrote the cost of Viagra and drugs for male-pattern baldness. The judge's decision, issued Friday, is the latest victory for women's rights advocates in a series of battles fought in state legislatures and courtrooms over the issue of contraceptive access. U.S.

Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Warner Chilcott Corp. were accused Monday of blocking generic production of oral contraceptive Ovcon in a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission. According to the FTC complaint, Warner Chilcott entered into a $20-million agreement with Barr that prevented Barr's generic Ovcon from entering the U.S. market for five years. California joined 20 other states and the District of Columbia in supporting the FTC suit filed in the U.S.