Guest Author - Candance Gordon
In just a matter of weeks, 17- year- olds should be able to buy Plan B, also known as the “morning after pill” without a prescription and without parental consent, just as women 18 and older are allowed to do.
The FDA approved the sale of Plan B over-the-counter for women 18 and older in August 2006, five years after they were originally petitioned to do so, but required women 17 and under to obtain a prescription. They reasoned that pharmacists wouldn’t be able to control the prescription requirement if the cutoff age were 17 rather than 18. On March 23rd a federal overturned that rule, stating that 17 year olds could use the drug safely and that there is no validity to the FDA’s assertion that pharmacists wouldn’t be able to control the prescription requirement.
U.S. District Judge Edward Korman went on to blast the FDA for allowing politics to cloud their judgment when it came to making a decision regarding the medication. He said that the FDA allowed pressure from the Bush Administration and conservative groups to delay their approval of the “morning after pill” when they were originally petitioned to make it available without a prescription. Judge Korman ordered that the pill be made available to the younger women within 30 days of his ruling.
In a statement on their website, the FDA said they will not appeal the federal court’s ruling to make Plan B available to 17-year-olds. But, the product won’t be available to the younger women until the manufacturer of Plan B, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, submits and receives approval for a new label containing the new age requirements. There is currently no plan to make the drug available to girls under the age of 17.
If taken 72 hours after unprotected sex, Plan B can prevent ovulation or stop implantation of a fertilized egg. Opponents of the pill say this is the equivalent of an abortion. They also argue that making the “morning after pill” more widely available will encourage teenagers to engage in sexual activity and that men will be more likely to have sex with underage girls.
The U.S. has one of the highest rates of teenaged pregnancies in the world, so the availability of this emergency contraception to even more women will go a long way to help reduce those numbers. No, it won’t protect young girls from STD’s, but it’s one step in the right direction to improve women’s reproductive health.
