The Morning After

- Kerry Hughes

The morning after pill will now be made readily available for women without a prescription in drug stores in the United States. The government has decided to stop trying to block availability of the pill based on age. Now a woman can walk into a pharmacy and purchase the pill without age restrictions. The Food and Drug Administration approved the lifting of age restrictions in 2011, but secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, overturned it. This limited the sale to people over the age of 17.

Due to Sebelius’s change to the FDA’s recommendation, there was a lawsuit filed by Women’s Reproductive Rights Groups. Judge Edward Korman ruled that two types of emergency contraception should be made available without restriction, age or prescriptions, but the court decided to wait and see if the ruling had ‘merit’. On Monday, June 10, 2013, the Justice Department and Obama Administration decided to allow Judge Korman’s ruling to go into effect. The Justice Department realized that the case may be lost in the appeals courts, which would then elevate the case to the level of the Supreme Court if pursued, and therefore the Department decided to drop its obstruction to the availability of the birth control.

Consequently, Plan B as well as other generic forms of the morning after pill will be available over the counter without a prescription. Judge Korman had ruled that the pills should be made available on drugstore shelves next to condoms and tampons. The FDA plans to drop its appeal of Korman’s ruling, as the administration has instead asked the Plan B manufacturers to submit an application for approval of an one-pill application. The type of morning after pill that is an EC or two pills containing hormones to prevent pregnancy will be made available over the counter immediately.

The move by the secretary to overrule the FDA and change its recommendations for the restrictions on morning after pills was seen as… continue reading