Plan B (aka the morning after pill) Goes Over and Behind the Counter

Its official, the FDA has approved Plan B for sale over the counter. However, unlike some other over the counter medications, plan B will be kept behind the counter under lock and key. Only women over the age of 18, with state issued IDs will be able to purchase the drug. Women under the age of 18 will be able to access the drug, but only with a prescription from their doctor.

The reasons why women under the age of 18 cannot get Plan B, according to the director of the FDA, without a prescription are confusing to say the least. He claims that although their own studies showed the drug was safe for women of all ages, they believed women under the age of 18 would not be able to follow the directions for use of the drug. He continued to attempt to back that opinion up, by saying that we have lots of laws which exclude teens from adult activities. I find this interesting coming from the director of the FDA. Is he unaware that doctors frequently give medications tested only on adults to teens and pre-teens? Is he unaware that physically a woman IS an adult by the time she reaches her teens?

Although it was not discussed on the news program I watched, I am very concerned that you can only get Plan B from pharmacist. In a country where many states allow pharmacist to refuse medications to women based on "morality", I wonder how many women will not be able to get Plan B because of activist pharmacists. Add to this the controversy over the drug and the mis-information presented by the right that Plan B terminates a pregnant and women in certain communities may not be able to access to drug at all.

We as women may have won the battle. Yet the war between us and the federal government over our bodies is far from over.

You can watch or listen to the news program I saw on this site: http://www.pbs.org/newshour