WASHINGTON, D.C., June 10, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Obama administration announced last night that it will drop a legal challenge many critics believed was an act of political posturing and allow the sale of the Plan B One Step "morning after pill" over the counter. As soon as the FDA completes the appropriate paperwork, any minor girl who has reached the age of fertility – possibly 11 years old or younger – will be able to purchase the drug without a prescription or parental notification.
The administration announced it was ending its legal challenge to a federal judge's ruling last night.
Now the manufacturer of Plan B, the Israeli-based Teva Pharmaceuticals, will have to submit an application for over-the-counter sale. "Once FDA receives that supplemental application, the FDA intends to approve it promptly," the agency said in a statement issued Monday night.
Thus ends a multi-year effort by pro-abortion lobbyists to make the potentially abortifcient pill readily available.
This was a change of tune from 2011, when Obama had suggested that restricting Plan B to those 17 years old and older was "common sense."
At the time, Obama issued a statement in support of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius's decision to overrule and FDA decision to lift age restrictions on Plan B. "I will say this, as the father of two daughters: I think it is important for us to make sure that we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine," he said.
Last week, Judge Korman ordered two generic forms of abortifacient emergency "contraception" to be sold over the counter, but delayed the OTC release of Plan B One Step until after the case was resolved. However, with the Obama admin dropping the case, Plan B will soon be available as readily as tylenol.
The drug, first approved for use in 1999, had required a prescription until 2006, when it was available only to adult women. Judge Korman ordered the lowering of the age of sales without a prescription from 18 to 17 in 2009.
Contrary to abortion proponents, the widespread use of the morning after pill has not affected surgical abortion or birth rates but merely increased teenagers' likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviors and spiked the rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Despite fervent denials, the world's foremost expert on Plan B (Levonorgestrel) and other forms of the "morning after pill" said emergency contraception can induce the abortion of a new life.
Some questioned what motivated the administration's half-hearted appeal of Korman's decision in the first place. "We can't help but wonder why the Obama administration is suddenly concerned with women's health, when every other move it has made has been in favor of unrestricted abortion and contraception – even going so far as to force those with religious and moral objections to pay for them," said Father Shenan Boquet, the president of Human Life International.