for what it's worth

"Judge orders FDA to lower Plan B age restrictions for over-the-counter sales.

USA Today (3/24, Rubin) reports that US District Court Judge Edward Korman ruled Monday that "the Food and Drug Administration should immediately lower the age cutoff for over-the-counter sales of Plan B, the 'morning-after pill,' to 17..." (see below)

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For what it's worth I like this decision. The thing about pregnancy is it takes a whole freaking year to pop out that parasite, and parents shouldn't write ethical checks their kids are gonna void.

Lemmisplain:

Now I think the whole birth control debate is bunk, but let's be pragmatic. Let's say seventeen year old Little Miss Phermone's abstinence-only "sex"-"education"* curriculum says condoms don't work, and Billy McDaterape asks her out after class. She says yes. They go out. She says 'no.' He says 'yes.' If she doesn't want that people-culture to germinate she can either Plan B that sperm in its wiggly tracks (often before any DNA mingling takes place) or wait 3 months until she turns eighteen and can legally get a late 1st-trimester abortion. (I like the first option better.)

On the bunking of contraceptive rights... The Russian doll, kiddo-in-kiddo, legal rights work like this: the enwombed progeny of pregnant minors is the responsibility of the grand parents until the point when Dr. So N Sew cuts Little Miss Pheromone's cord. From then on the 14 year old mommy is in charge. And while she still can't legally get birth control for herself, she can give the OK for treatment, drugs and even elective surgery on her little ankle biter. Hell, she can even sign for it's birth control!

The crux of the matter is that an ever expanding adolescence (earlier puberty and later financial independence) creates entitlement gaps in our supposedly ethical legal system. Such obvious gaffs in our world of clean breaks and self-evident categorization tends to poke a few air holes in our black-n-white neo-christo-conservatism. I like the air holes. It gives the few of us who aren't dead from the neck up a chance to breathe. It helps us see the world for what it is: not black and white - not even gray - but technicolored.

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Judge orders FDA to lower Plan B age restrictions for over-the-counter sales.

USA Today (3/24, Rubin) reports that US District Court Judge Edward Korman ruled Monday that "the Food and Drug Administration should immediately lower the age cutoff for over-the-counter sales of Plan B, the 'morning-after pill,' to 17 and consider making it available without a prescription at any age." Following a December 2003 recommendation by "an FDA advisory panel...that Plan B go over-the-counter, or OTC," the agency "took the unusual step of allowing OTC sales to consumers over 17 while still requiring prescriptions for those younger." But, because "the agency didn't act until August 2006," Judge Korman noted that the FDA "repeatedly and unreasonably delayed issuing a decision on Plan B for suspect reasons."

The Wall Street Journal (3/24, Mundy) reports that the FDA's 2006 decision came after "a battle with Democrats and abortion-rights supporters," and that "Bush administration officials at the time argued that teenagers wouldn't be able to make rational decisions about their reproductive health." Judge Korman "criticized current and former FDA officials for using 'political considerations, delays and implausible justifications' to hold up [the] nonprescription sales."

The New York Times (3/24, A12, Singer) reports that the agency moved "only when members of Congress threatened to hold up confirmation hearings on acting FDA commissioners," according to Judge Korman, despite endorsements from "five dozen public health groups," including the American Medical Association, "to make Plan B available over the counter." He also "wrote that agency officials had improperly communicated with White House officials about Plan B," and that "FDA employees sought to influence decisions by appointing people with anti-abortion views to an independent panel of experts reviewing Plan B for the agency." In doing so, "the FDA had acted without good faith or reasoned decision making," Judge Korman wrote.

The Washington Post (3/24, A2, Stein) reports that according to Susan F. Wood, "who resigned from the FDA because of the agency's delays...several officials involved in the decision are either still at the agency or in other key government positions, including Janet Woodcock, who heads the FDA's drug approval office."

Bloomberg News (3/24, Hurtado) reports that Judge Korman also wrote that "Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach 'wrested control over the decision-making on Plan B from staff that normally would issue the final decision on an over-the-counter' application" by deciding "to deny non-prescription access to women 16 years and younger before FDA scientific review staff had completed their reviews." And, although the agency's advisory committee "voted 23 to 4 in 2003 to approve Plan B for over-the-counter status without age restrictions," the "request was the only one not approved after the committee recommended it" amid "nearly two dozen applications," the AP (3/24, Neumeister) notes.

CQ HealthBeat (3/24) reports that the agency must "within 30 days" comply with the ruling. Meanwhile, Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the suit against the FDA, said, "The message is clear -- the FDA should put medical science first and leave politics at the lab door." The New York Post (3/24, Cornell), the New York Daily News (3/24, Marzulli), and the New York Law Journal (3/24, Fass) also cover the story.

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*I realize that "sex"-"education" is a little cumbersome, but I couldn't think of a better way to show that I find most of America's Sex-Ed courses involve very little sex and even less education.