FDA to allow morning-after pill over the counter for 17-year-olds
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The “morning-after pill” will be available without a prescription to women 17 and older, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The minimum age has been 18.
On March 23, a federal court ordered that Plan B, an emergency contraception pill, be made available over the counter to those 17 and up, the agency said in a statement on its Web site. The agency will not appeal that order, the statement said.
In the order, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman also asked the agency to consider whether the pill should be available to women of all ages without a prescription, saying that such a determination is best left to the expertise of the FDA rather than a federal district judge.
And he rebuked the FDA for apparently departing from its own procedures with respect to making decisions on the pill’s over-the-counter status, noting the “unusual involvement of the White House in the Plan B decision-making process.”
The plaintiffs in the case presented “unrebutted evidence of the FDA’s lack of good faith” toward the application to switch Plan B from prescription to non-prescription use, the judge wrote.
“This lack of good faith is evidenced by, among other things, (1) repeated and unreasonable delays, pressure emanating from the White House, and the obvious connection between the confirmation process of two FDA commissioners and the timing of the FDA’s decisions; and (2) significant departures from the FDA’s normal procedures and policies … as compared to the review of other switch applications in the past 10 years,” Korman wrote.
This is very troubling: the birth control pill is a prescription drug but the high-dose version is available not only without prescription but also to teens?
Teenage girls, who for the most part are unready to handle the emotional aspects of sexual relationships but are having unprotected sex, now can just pop Plan B possibly every time after.
What are we doing to our children?
Others posting on it:
Anyway, parents just lost some more of their rights.
By what logic is the federal government required by law to allow access to after-the-fact birth control to minors?
What next? Over-the-counter roofies?
