By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Feb 9 1999 (IPS)

Women’s groups are up in arms over what they call a “gender biased” decision by the government to approve the sale in Japan of the anti-impotence drug Viagra, while dragging its feet on contraceptive pills.

“The whole situation simply illustrates the ‘double standards’ followed in government policy. While women continue to struggle to have access to the low-dosage contraceptive pill, men now have the right to buy Viagra to improve their quality of life,” argued Yuriko Ashino, deputy executive director of Family Planning Federation of Japan.

Women’s groups have fought bitterly for many years to get the Health and Welfare Ministry to import low-dosage oral contraceptives as a birth control method, instead of the more dangerous medium-dosage pills used as a replacement in Japan.

But despite this clamour, Ashino says, women are forced to wait, and wait some more.

The government advisory group, the Central Pharmaceutical Affairs Council, is still deliberating on requests made by nine pharmaceutical companies between 1990 and 1991 to sell the low- dosage birth control pills commonly used elsewhere in the world.

The pill, which is about 99 percent effective if taken correctly, has had a tortuous history in Japan. The deadlock between proponents and the government has been running for almost a decade now.

In December, the Japanese media hinted official approval would come between March and June this year.

But women’s groups say they cannot be optimistic, pointing out that the government promised in 1992 to lift the ban, but later bowed to opposition pressure. The same pattern has occurred several times before.

In contrast, Viagra, a medicine designed to improve men’s sexual performance, was officially approved for manufacturing and importation on Jan 25 — after only six months of deliberation.

Womens groups say the decision came unusually quickly — because even for regular drugs the Council takes at least 19 months of processing.

Opponents of the sale of low-dosage contraceptive pill, mostly men in the Council, have argued that its easy availability could result in a decline in sexual morals, adding it could promote the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and the HIV virus, because the pill could lead to a reduction in the use of condoms.

Daisaku Sato of the Health and Welfare Ministry warns the pill could produce endocrine disrupting hormones and harm women. “Compared to Viagra, which is considered a medical treatment for sick men, the pill is given to healthy women. That is a major difference that must considered carefully,” he explains.

But this type of argument is exactly what irks women fighting for the pill. They have long been insisting that the core issue is their demand for the right to a safe contraceptive and to ensure a high quality of life for women — just like Viagra is said to help men enjoy their lives.

“The birth control pill is safer than other contraceptive methods which are available to women in Japan. This is why the issue is so important to us,” explained Dr Tomoko Saotome, a gynecologist and advocate of the pill.

A white paper by the U.N. Population Fund last year criticised Japan’s inaction on approval for the pill, illustrating Japan’s high number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions as a result of failed contraception.

The condom is the most common type of birth control in Japan, but it forces women to rely on men, says Saotome. Japan has not approved the intrauterine device (IUD) either.

About 338,000 women resorted to abortion to terminate pregnancies in 1997, according to figures compiled by municipalities. Doctors say the figure could be double when considering unreported cases and argue that abortions are more risky to women compared to the pill.

Saotome, who conducted a birth control survey of 1,800 female students in high school, college, and vocational schools for nurses, found out that more than 40 percent of these women do not use contraception and leave the decision to men.

“Everything points out to the sad situation that women’s health and their right to enjoy safe contraception is ignored by the government. That’s because men are in charge of our lives,” explains Saotome.

Critics complain that Viagra, which has been blamed for some deaths, should be also be banned if the pill is disapproved on grounds of supposedly health risks. “The Ministry’s drug approval procedure is incoherent,” Midori Ashida, leader of the Professional Women’s Coalition for Sexuality and Health.

Saotome also says the access to the contraceptive pill is part of a long campaign by women’s groups to get the government to enact policies that will provide the best possible care in the protection of women’s health.

“For example we are also campaigning against better protection from the new invasive and dangerous methods that are being introduced by doctors to women in the name of curing fertility problems,” she explained.

“The adoption of the pill must be part of a complete campaign that will produce laws that support women in the right to safe reproductive health,” she said.

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