Abortion Plan B
The New Republic Online's Jonathan Cohn discusses a right wing plan to work on abortion politics through the morning after pill controversy:This time, conservatives are making noise. A year ago, 49 Republican representatives wrote President Bush, urging him to block approval of Barr's FDA application. And, while the FDA's own scientific advisory panel endorsed the application by a vote of 23 to four, the Agency has withheld approval. Early this month, Senators Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray announced they would place an indefinite 'hold' on the nomination of the FDA's acting director, Lester Crawford, to become its permanent director until the Agency issued a ruling. (Unrelated issues have since stalled Crawford's nomination.) Meanwhile, stories of pharmacists refusing to fill Plan B prescriptions are cropping up. Early this month, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich issued an emergency rule requiring pharmacies, as publicly licensed health care providers, to dispense the medications, even if employees object. Conservatives there are trying to overturn the order.
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I think Cohn is pretty much on target regarding the political dynamics. But "under the counter" status for Plan B is a bad compromise with the the foes of women's self-determination and defenders of young women's virginity.
The FDA's scientists have given Plan B a clean bill of health as regards safety, so it should be given straightforward "over the counter" status. Then it would quickly become available in your grocery story, right next to the condoms. And pharmacists who find emergency contraception morally objectionable would be deprived of an opportunity to become martyrs.
- by Bob Koepp on Apr 28, 2005 at 1:10 PM | link