Is that true? Are women really that ignorant of the side effects?

Well, I think it's one of those things that hinges on how you understand the risk. For example, I knew the health center staff at my undergrad university fairly well. The head of the health center (a nurse practitioner - they had doctors on call, but it was a small school so they were only on as part-time staff) was the adviser to an AIDS awareness group that I was in, and she made it clear to us that it was her opinion that pretty much every girl in the school should be on the pill. She dealt with so many tearful "morning after" stories, and had to set up so many behind-the-parent's (or boyfriend's) back abortions that she felt the small risk of harm more than offset the benefits. I'm sure that when she talked to girls about going on the pill, she made them fully aware of the side effects - but also highly encouraged them to go on it, and emphasized that the risk of complications developing is actually very low. So yes, all the girls that went through her "knew" the risks, but they also "knew" that the pill was very safe and effective. On the flip side, an acquaintance of mine went through her family gynecologist to go on the pill as was put on the old school, high dose pill. When she went back for her six-month checkup, her blood pressure was higher than it should have been, and the gynecologist gave her a scare story lecture and took her off the pill, but didn't make any effort to switch her to a low dose pill or alternative form of birth control. About two years later she went on one of the low dose pills (through another gynecologist), and hasn't had any problems with her blood pressure since.

These varying experiences suggest to me that knowledge about the pill's effects probably varies widely depending on the circles you move in, the culture of the place that you got your pill prescription from (i.e. family planning clinics and college health centers will probably push the pill a bit harder than a family doctor might). Since the pill still has some stigma attached to it, I don't think women are quite as comfortable talking about it (both to their medical provider, and amongst each other), which leads to a lot of misinformation. That cuts both ways, of course - in general discussion I've found that a lot of people think the pill is less effective than it actually is (it's about 98%-99% effective when taken absolutely on schedule, and about 92%-95% effective in "real life" situations - but I've had a lot of people swear to me that it was in the 80% range). Ideally, this is the sort of thing that would be covered honestly in a high school health class, but in the current climate I suppose that's a bit much to expect. A truly honest assessment gets attacked from both the far left and the far right (the left because some will claim that even admitting there are risks somehow makes you an oppressor, and the far right's issues with the pill are pretty well known). It's a tough issue no matter how you look at it.

I thought when you get birth control pills they come with a sheet warning of teh side effects.

They do, of course, but how many people actually read that sheet in detail? Also, as I mentioned in my reply to cloudofdust, the attitude of the person who initially prescribes the pill to you can have a large impact on how you assess that risk (i.e. whether you blow it off, or take it seriously).

Having some difficulty with the concept of plan B?

Look, Lou, maybe you don't recall the "no wire hangars" pro-legalized abortion campaign, but I do. The whole point of a legal right to choose was coached as a means to keep women safe. So maybe I'm a bit touchy about pregnancy prevention measures which might have the same net result as back alley hack jobs. Maybe you should be.

(For the record, I'm not against Plan B medication, but I am very much against Plan B being made available over-the-counter.)