Politics of Contraception
More than 70 of the nation’s leading medical and public health groups backed a proposal to let women buy emergency contraception without a prescription.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s own advisory panel, after reviewing 40 studies and 15,000 pages of data, overwhelming recommended over-the-counter status for the so-called morning-after pill.
Use of this pill would cut the number of abortions in this country -- a goal President Bush ardently embraces -- and millions of women who have used it by prescription since 1999 have found this drug to be safe and effective in blocking unwanted pregnancies.
And yet it’s an election year, and many of Bush’s supporters insist that broader availability of the pill would encourage promiscuity and unsafe sex.
So when FDA leaders overruled their own scientific advisors to reject over-the-counter sales Thursday, politics once again trumped science, despite their avowals to the contrary. The decision echoes this administration’s big-footing of scientific evidence on stem cell research and environmentally safe levels of mercury and arsenic.
The agency has, however, left open a path that would let women eventually obtain this drug more easily -- after the November election -- and the pill’s maker should pursue that opportunity.
In a letter to manufacturer Barr Laboratories, the FDA said the company had failed to prove that girls younger than 16 could safely use the drug, which it markets as Plan B, without guidance from a doctor or nurse. Until Barr can satisfy the agency that Plan B is safe for teenagers or present a plan for over-the-counter sales to older women and more restricted sales to 14- to 16-year-olds, the FDA has blocked all over-the-counter sales.
Barr says it will pursue these options, but even if it acts quickly, approval probably won’t come for a year, long after November’s votes are counted.
Emergency contraceptives contain a concentrated dose of the hormones found in birth control pills. Taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, the pill prevents pregnancy by delaying ovulation, blocking fertilization and inhibiting uterine implantation. But the drug is more effective if it is taken within 24 hours rather than 72 hours.
That’s why California and four other states permit pharmacists to dispense it without a prescription if women ask.
But surveys show that few pharmacies in California stock the pill and few women know to ask for it. Over-the-counter sales would give far more women access to this drug, especially on holidays and weekends. For now, however, FDA leaders have left a lot of women in a difficult, and unnecessary, spot.
