Suspicious

The FDA has gone against the recommendation of an advisory committee in not approving the morning-after pill for sale over the counter.

Now the morning-after pill is not the same as the abortion pill, RU-486. The morning-after pill is just an extra-strong version of the regular birth-control pill.

The FDA gave as its reason that the company hadn't demonstrated sufficient evidence that girls 16 and younger can understand how to safely use the pill without the help of a doctor. While that may be a somewhat valid concern (though apparently it's only two pills, so it seems like it would be hard to mess up), at least one of the proposed solutions seems fishy.

The company will either have to provide a study showing young girls understand the drug's label, or they will have to devise a system so that women younger than 17 have restricted access to the drug. Which probably would mean those young girls would have to get a prescription. Probably just the ones who might benefit most from having easy access to it, since it has to be used within 72 hours. Let's face it, preventing teen pregnancies would probably one of the most important benefits of the increased access.

Lots of people are saying it's the Bush administration's political views being filtered through the FDA. But honestly, if it's abortions you want to prevent, shouldn't you be promoting birth control? And for these abstinence-only guys, especially this particular one, since it's fixing the problem after the fact?

Of course, that's probably not their real agenda. Just the one they tell us to distract from the man behind the curtain.

The New York Times > Health > U.S. Rules Morning-After Pill Can't Be Sold Over the Counter