Tonight, in her infinite wisdom, Baroness Young hopes to gather enough support from peers to ban chemists from selling the morning-after pill, on the grounds that she has safety fears about making the drug easily available.
Her objections are curious, because to date, not a shred of medical research exists to back up such fears. The new-generation post-coital pill is believed to be safer than previous versions because it contains a lower-dose hormone; it is also more effective, with a 95% success rate.
In any case, women taking the drug Levonelle-2 rarely experience the unpleasant side-effects of nausea and dizziness once associated with emergency contraception.
Young is sending out scaremongering statistics about the drug being "50 times" stronger than the ordinary contraceptive pill. In fact, it is believed to be six times stronger.
Perhaps Baroness Young wasn't paying attention when she heard the science part. Or perhaps she didn't want to hear it. One suspects that her fears are not about medical risk at all, they are fears about young women having sex.
This is as irksome as it is inaccurate. Teenage girls are not the section of the population having the most amount of sex. That honour falls to - gasp - married couples, who do not usually need to borrow their parents' car for the evening.
Women of all ages will benefit from the reassurance of knowing they can buy the drug over the counter. Critics have voiced concern that feckless teenagers will use it as an alternative to responsible contraception. With a price tag of £20, it's hardly a pocket-money option.
Baroness Young and supporters such as the shadow health secretary, Liam Fox, endlessly preach about the joys of sex education over emergency contraception. But they are missing the point.
When it comes to the nitty-gritty of having sex the first few times, sex education is about as useful as the Highway Code when you hit the M1 for the first time.
In any case, educational efforts have had no statistical impact. Britain still has the highest rate of unwanted teenage pregnancy and abortion in western Europe. The government aims to halve these figures by 2010, but what chance is there of that if Baroness Young wins her vote?
And I am not convinced that she cares anything for women's health concerns. Lest we forget, the emotional and physical risks of abortion are still far higher than swallowing a low-dose hormone pill.
Related articles
27.1.2001: Superdrug to pioneer selling morning-after pill on internet
9.1.2001: Victoria Moore on the morning after
11.12.2000: Morning after pill to go on sale
Useful links
Morning-after pill - Superdrug.com
Information- morningafterpill.org
British pharmacists support morning after pill - WebMD Health
