How the hell do you rationalize this? In a vacuum, that’s how. Yes, of course, some young girls may not know how to read the directions — but there are already plenty of dangerous over the counter drugs to which they have easy access. More importantly, young girls who are pregnant and delay abortion decisions often end up mothers – which calls for a whole other set of mature decisions for which they may not be prepared:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the FDA today on making the morning-after contraception pill available to teens under 17-years-old without a prescription. Of course, the pill itself has been controversial in the years since its introduction, so it’s unsurprising that debate over whether to let minors use it would spur conflict. Still, The Associated Press calls it “a surprise move” that Sebelius would overrule her own experts. The emergency pill, which prevents pregnancies after intercourse, is already available over-the-counter to those 17 and over, and the FDA had decided women younger than 17 were also able to make a decision whether to use it without a doctor’s guidance. The statements from the two camps pretty much stick dryly to issues of whether minors are mature enough to decide such matters. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said today “there is adequate and reasonable, well-supported, and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for nonprescription use for all females of child-bearing potential,” but noted that Sebelius had disagreed.
This was a political decision on Sebelius’ part pure and simple. Blame it on what the reaction of the Evangelical Christian right wing lunatics like Newt, Perry and Romney would have been had Sebelius allowed these pills to have been sold next to Hershey bars. This decision will be reversed once Obama is reelected next year. Hillary and the generals put Obama in the same kind of bind with the war in Afghanistan. Obama wanted to end that war, but the Hillary forces wanted it ramped up so that we could do some “nation building.” Once Hillary was shown to be an idiot, Obama began to wind the war down. Things are what they are. Except to the unrealistic.