by Tom Strode, posted Thursday, April 23, 2009 (15 years ago)
WASHINGTON (BP)--The federal government will not challenge a judge's controversial ruling on the Plan B "morning-after" pill, meaning 17-year-old females will be able to obtain a drug with abortion-causing qualities without a prescription.
"In most schools, a 17-year-old girl can't get an aspirin from the school nurse without parental permission, but she can buy an abortifacient drug over the counter without a prescription."--Richard Land
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced its decision in a brief statement April 22. The FDA notified Plan B's manufacturer, Duramed Research Inc., it could market the drug on a non-prescription basis to 17-year-olds upon the agency's approval of a request from the Pennsylvania firm.
The agency's decision barely met the 30-day deadline set March 23 by New York judge Edward Korman. Before Korman's ruling, Plan B was available without a prescription for use by women 18 and older. Females 17 and under needed a prescription, a requirement for women of all ages until a rule change in 2006.
Plan B is basically a heavier dose of birth control pills. Under the regimen, a woman takes two pills within 72 hours of sexual intercourse and another dose 12 hours later. The drug, also known as "emergency contraception," works to restrict ovulation in a woman. It also can act after conception, thereby causing an abortion, pro-lifers point out. This mechanism of the drug blocks implantation of a tiny embryo in the uterine wall.
Southern Baptist ethics leader Richard Land decried the Food and Drug Administration's decision, saying it is "shameful that the Obama administration is not going to appeal this terrible decision" by Korman.
"The judge's ruling that 17-year-old girls can now get Plan B, post-intercourse contraceptives without a prescription from their doctor is one more example of the government thinking that it has the right to interpose itself between parents and their children ..." Read More
