The President of Spain, Mr. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has recently presented an interesting package of economic reforms aimed to improve the Spanish economy. This comes after recent public controversy about the slow answer of the government to the crisis and the lack of leadership to confront it.

A recent initiative launched by deans of over 100 universities in the United States is calling for a national debate on whether to lower the drinking age to 18. The initiative has been called the Amethyst Initiative, which in Greek means without intoxication. The deans defend that in singling out alcohol consumption as the only thing a young adult is not legally allowed to do at 18 it creates a mystery that makes it’s consumption more enticing and keeps it in the underground due to it’s illegality. They also draw from international experience and the knowledge that in other cultures the drinking age is much lower (16 in many European countries) and it seems the binge drinking is less of a problem.

 A group in Cantabria has made a breakthrough in the discussion over Emergency Contraception (EC). There is an ongoing battle within the scientific community about the mechanism of action of the Morning After Pill that contributes a second chance if a primary means of contraception has not been used appropriately, namely a daily oral contraceptive or a condom. Failures or misuses of primary contraceptive measures are a common occurrence and become a large part of the unwanted pregnancies that lead to abortion. In an ideal world, we could eliminate abortion if we eliminated unwanted pregnancies and insomuch primary contraception has contributed to this end. However as humans we are without the luxury of complete rectitude. Sometimes we need a second chance. Plan B seems like a logical means to further tackle the numbers of unwanted pregnancies and would logically reduce the numbers of abortions.