FDA Ordered to Rethink Age Restriction for Plan B

FDA Ordered to Rethink Age Restriction for Plan B

www.washingtonpost.com

A federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration yesterday to reconsider its 2006 decision to deny girls younger than 18 access to the morning-after pill Plan B without a prescription.

U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman in New York instructed the agency to make Plan B available to 17-year-olds within 30 days and to review whether to make the emergency contraceptive available to all ages without a doctor's order

(visit the link for the full news article)

And it wouldn't surprise me one bit. I understand how much of a hot button issue abortion is here on ATS but considering the morning after pill is just higher doses of the same hormones found in birth control pills its really never been much of a discussion.

Most of the time the woman would not have gotten pregnant. It just affects her uterine tissue so an embryo cannot implant (just like normal birth control).

Making younger teenagers (and believe me, these days there is not much difference between a 17 year old and an 18 year old) have to go receive a prescription in order to use Plan B seems ideologically motivated...like so much else we saw during the Bush years.

I believe this is a good idea.
Thoughts?

www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Teenage girls need to have available to them the option to not get pregnant when they want. Thisis real life not some sort of idealistic world we live in. We live in the real world and as such need real life support of peoples actions.

reply to post by awake_awoke


I agree with this decision.

Plan B is not abortion. It should not require parental consent and should not have an age requirement.

Better "Plan B" than some back alley abortion....

Isn't that the whole point?

reply to post by Maxmars


I would think so.

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't feel that way at all.

I work with one of the clinics that provides plan B, and teens have access. The problem is they start using it like birth control. You start seeing the same teens in there all the time. once or twice it is not a problem, but more then that you start having problems.

I think it should be available to teens, but only with considerable counseling attached.

I know some pharmacies (the CVS in my area) will prescribe Plan B without a prescription, you just have to ask. And usually you can just call an OBGYN or midwife or doctor and they will prescribe for free without having to go in or anything.

I think the important thing is the following:

Women and young women both need a prescription for birth control. That is because there are so many kinds based on different hormonal amounts and if you have certain medical conditions and the like you need to have that analyzed so you're put on the safest and least "reactive" one for your needs.

Obviously, abortion is a whole other can of worms.

Plan B is a preventative measure. 18 and over you can just go get it (that is unless your local CVS or Walgreens has that crazy pharmacist who won't do their darn job for "personal reasons").

So why make those under 18 get a prescription?

To deter them from being able to make choices about their bodies?

You only have 72 hours....to secure an appointment with your ob/gyn or go to a clinic. And during the Bush years they did everything to cut access to Planned Parenthood, etc....so....

It becomes very difficult to achieve. It can be embarassing.

I agree that there are probably some teens, but also WOMEN who are not privy to this rule, who use it continuously as a means of actual birth control.
Regardless of age, they're dumb.

I think the article was trying to say, for barely any reason at all, the FDA, a federal regulatory body, was in a way forced and coerced to make this rule with no scientific evidence to do so.

That is not how the FDA should operate- it should not operate with any ideological beliefs behind its science. It should be immune from politics as a whole.