MORNING AFTER PILL . . . A WELL-KEPT SECRET

Few patients seem to know that morning-after birth control pills are a safe, legal and effective way to interrupt potential pregnancies, according to two studies released today by the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation. The main reasons: doctors are not recommending them to patients, and drug makers are not advertising them as after-the-fact birth control for fear of apolitical backlash from abortion opponents. The foundation surveyed 270 women and 300 ob/gyns. In order to educate the public about the availability of the treatment, a small group of health care professionals are planning to post a list on the Internet of 1,477 doctors who are willing to prescribe the pills.

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
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