Federal Judge Orders FDA to Broaden Access to Emergency Contraception

In a landmark decision on April 5, 2013, a federal judge ordered
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lift longstanding restrictions that
impede and delay women’s access to emergency contraception.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman ordered the FDA to make
levonorgestrel-based emergency contraception available over-the-counter without
age or point of sale restriction-citing the actions by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius as “politically
motivated, scientifically unjustified, and contrary to agency precedent.”

The defendants sought a request to stay this decision but were denied on May 10,
2013, and they dismissed their appeal of the April 5 order to the Second
Circuit on July 23, 2013 after Judge Korman approved the FDA’s proposal
to allow Plan B One-Step to be sold over-the-counter.