Plan B available Over-The-Counter, “right out there with the bubble gum”

Bad news for snake-handlers and Biblehumpers; good news for everybody else.  U.S. District Judge Edward Korman has ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make the morning after birth control pill, known as Plan B, available without a prescription to all women of reproductive age.

Currently, girls under 17 need a prescription, and all women can be required by the pharmacist to show identification.  And there have been numerous cases of pharmacists — who are clearly in the wrong profession — refusing to provide the morning after pill because it violates their “moral” beliefs.

And now, pharmacists are out of the equation.

The ruling was hailed by medical organizations — including the American Academy of Pediatrics — and by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Expressing an opposing view, Karen Brauer, president of Pharmacists for Life, said:

“When these are right out there with the bubble gum, they're going to be part of the date rape cocktail.”

[sigh]

Two years ago the FDA tried to make Plan B available to everyone without a prescription, but they were overruled by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Susan Wood, a former FDA assistant commissioner, said:

“This has been a 10-year saga during which the FDA was not allowed to do its role properly, not allowed to make science-based decisions.  This decision gives the FDA the chance to reclaim its ability to make decisions based on science, medicine and evidence, not politics.”

And Judge Korman reprimanded Kathleen Sebelius for stymieing the FDA because of her political beliefs:

“Nevertheless, even with eyes shut to the motivation for the secretary's decision, the reasons she provided are so unpersuasive as to call into question her good faith.”