Bush Administration Breaks Promise to Make Decision on ‘Morning-After Pill’ by September 1
(Cleveland, OH) – Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, issued the following statement in response to the Food and Drug Administration’s refusal yet again to decide whether American women should be allowed to purchase Plan B, or the “morning-after pill,” over-the-counter. The morning-after pill is an emergency contraceptive (EC) that significantly reduces a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant after sex or sexual assault. The Bush administration explicitly promised the U.S. Senate that the FDA would stop dragging its feet and issue a decision by September 1. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA) secured this written promise last month as part of an agreement to lift their hold on the nomination of Lester Crawford to the post of FDA commissioner. In their letter to Barr Pharmaceuticals, the FDA said, "the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research ... has completed its review of this application, as amended, and has concluded that the available scientific data are sufficient to support the safe use of Plan B as an OTC[over-the-counter] product ... for women who are 17 years of age and older." “The Bush Administration has broken its promise to make a decision after more than two years of delays. These stall tactics are an insult to the majority of Americans who believe more should be done to reduce unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion. Scientists, doctors, and Americans across the political spectrum support giving women, especially survivors of sexual assault, better access to the morning-after pill to prevent unintended pregnancies. When is the Bush Administration going to stop pandering to right-wing extremists who oppose birth control and finally approve EC for over-the-counter use?” NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio is a leader in the effort to increase access to emergency contraception and first urged the FDA to give women better access to the morning-after pill almost five years ago. NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio directed a recent campaign that generated more than 1,000 messages from Ohioans to the FDA. In July, 2005 NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Foundation published a report about the difficulty in obtaining emergency contraception in Ohio’s hospital emergency rooms. According to this study, only two Ohio emergency rooms out of 151 stated that they give out emergency contraception regardless of why women are asking for it, and a shocking 24% of hospitals said they won’t even give emergency contraception to rape victims.
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