The Stranger | Slog | Faceless Babies and Acne:
The only twist is that in order to take Accutane, you have to join an FDA program called "I Pledge," which sounds creepily like an abstinence cult—and actually isn't all that far off from an abstinence cult. Before you can get the drug, you have to take not one but two pregnancy tests. The dosage is six months. Every month you have to take another pregnancy test. The reason is that Accutane causes severe birth defects, she says. The way she rests on the word "severe" makes me think it causes babies not to have faces, not just miss a finger or something.
Then she tells me that in addition to the tests, you also have to prove that you are on not one but two forms of birth control. "We prefer a hormonal course," she says, meaning the pill, along with condoms. I am not accustomed to being told what other people prefer I do with my uterus quite so starkly. Evidently you sign something saying you're using the condoms and the doctor prescribes you the pills, too. Or you get an IUD implanted. I didn't get the sense that, say, pledging to use condoms and a diaphragm would be sufficient.
3:02 PM
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