The Food and Drug Administration has delayed its ruling indefinitely on allowing Plan B, commonly known as the morning after pill, to be sold over the counter.
Plan B, like other emergency contraceptives, works to prevent pregnancy following unprotected intercourse or suspected contraceptive failure, such as a broken condom. The drug, which is two levonorgestrel pills -one taken within 72 hours of the intercourse and the other taken 12 hours later -can decrease the chance of pregnancy by 89 percent.
This is a scientific matter that has become completely politicized. Science should be left to determine science
said Nisha Gulati, senior campus organizer of the Feminist Majority Foundation, via telephone yesterday.
Personally I don't think emergency contraception should be allowed over-the-counter because other forms of contraception can be used before anything actually happens said Ohio University Campus Crusade member Sarah Montgomery.
In December of 2003, the FDA's advisory panel voted 23-4 in recommending the emergency contraception to be sold over the counter, but in May 2004 the FDA rejected its own panel's recommendation by forbidding over-the-counter sales of Plan B.
According to the FDA, adequate data was not provided by the drug's sponsor, Barr Pharmaceuticals, to support a conclusion that women under the age of 16 would be able to use the emergency contraceptive correctly without the supervision of a licensed practitioner.
After the FDA's refusal to allow Plan B to be sold over the counter, Barr Pharmaceuticals proposed an application allowing Plan B to be sold without a prescription to women age 16 and over and only to be sold with a prescription to women under the age of 16. The FDA is still pending the decision of this application.
Gulati urged students at OU to contact the FDA by going to the Web site www.Feminist.org to send a formatted letter or download a petition to push the FDA into making a decision. She said, The FDA doesn't often hear from people. When they hear public outcry
they do respond.
In mid-January of 2005, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed suit against the acting commissioner of the FDA for failing to approve Plan B for over-the-counter sale. Four years ago, the FDA also failed to act on a citizens' petition filed by the center on behalf of numerous health care and reproductive rights organizations. According to the center, by denying women over-the-counter access to Plan B, and by failing to follow its own procedures and statutory and regulatory mandates, the FDA violated the Administrative Procedures Act and the U.S. Constitution.
According to Planned Parenthood, emergency contraception, if made available over the counter, could prevent as many as half of the unintended pregnancies that occur in the United States each year.
The Christian Institute claims emergency contraception, if made available over the counter, will promote sexual promiscuity and increase the chance that a condom will not be used during intercourse, thus exposing participants to a sexually transmitted disease. The Christian Institute is also worried about long-term effects of repeated use of the drug since no appropriate studies have been done.
Plan B is available at Hudson Health Center for $10. The student does not need to have previously visited Hudson, but they will need a prescription by a doctor or nurse practitioner at the clinic. The cost of Plan B at retail pharmacies is $30 to $35, said Jacqueline Legg, business manager of Student Health Services at Hudson.
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Kallie Hinton
