Skip to content
Center for Reproductive Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • The Center’s Impact
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Annual Reports
    • Corporate Engagement
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • Cases Archive
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Global Advocacy
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Stories
    • Events
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Press Releases
    • Statements
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • U.S. Abortion Rights: Resources
    • Maps
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
    • Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Make a Donor Advised Fund Gift
    • Leave a Legacy Gift
    • Donate Gifts of Stock
    • Give a Gift in Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Employee Matching Gifts
    • Mail a Check
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
Donate
icon-hamburger icon-magnifying-glass Donate
icon-magnifying-glass-teal

RH Reality Check: Let Down Again: Obama’s FDA Inexplicably Fails to Advance New Emergency Contraception Rules

Center for Reproductive Rights - Center for Reproductive Rights - search logo
search Close Close icon
Center for Reproductive Rights -
Menu Close Menu Close icon
Donate

Primary Menu

  • About
    • Overview
    • The Center’s Impact
    • Center Leadership & Staff
    • Annual Reports
    • Corporate Engagement
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Work
    • Overview
    • Litigation
    • Legal Policy and Advocacy
    • Resources & Research
    • Recent Case Highlights
    • Landmark Cases
    • Cases Archive
    • World’s Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Abortion
    • Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
    • Assisted Reproduction
    • Contraception
    • Humanitarian Settings
    • Maternal Health
    • COVID-19
  • Regions
    • Overview
    • Global Advocacy
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America and the Caribbean
    • United States
  • News
    • Latest News
    • Stories
    • Events
    • Center in the Spotlight
    • Press Releases
    • Statements
    • Press Room
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Resources & Research
    • U.S. Abortion Rights: Resources
    • Maps
    • World Abortion Laws Map
    • After Roe Fell: Abortion Laws by State
    • Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch
  • Act
    • Overview
    • Give
    • Act
    • Learn
  • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Make a Donor Advised Fund Gift
    • Leave a Legacy Gift
    • Donate Gifts of Stock
    • Give a Gift in Honor
    • Attend an Event
    • Employee Matching Gifts
    • Mail a Check
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Related Content

Work:

Engaging Policymakers, In the States (USA), In Washington D.C.

Follow the Center

Donate Now

Join Now

03.30.2010

Engaging Policymakers

RH Reality Check: Let Down Again: Obama’s FDA Inexplicably Fails to Advance New Emergency Contraception Rules

Justin Goldberg

Share

  • facebook
  • Twitter
  • linkedin
  • Email id
By Laura MacCleery, Director of Government Relations & Communications at Center for Reproductive Rights

The first year of the Obama presidency is increasingly feeling like one of those maddening romantic relationships for many pro-choice supporters — brimming with promise in the beginning, but during the actual courtship, rife with disappointments. This week is perhaps the most heartbreaking. It almost goes without saying that the president’s decision to cut a deal with anti-choice Democrats in the healthcare debate this past weekend and sign an executive order reiterating current law banning federal funding for abortion left many of us reeling. But this week also marks the one-year anniversary of a court ruling on emergency contraception that remains unenforced, and is a reminder of yet another key failing in reproductive health on the part of the Obama administration. In March 2009, a federal judge delivered a blistering opinion to the Food and Drug Administration, condemning the agency’s Bush-era political appointees for ignoring the scientific evidence and restricting access to emergency contraception, a critical tool in preventing unwanted pregnancies and addressing the consequences of rape. In its decision, the court ordered FDA to reconsider limits on access to emergency contraception. Yet no progress has apparently been made over the past year to remove the senseless and unjustified age limits, or to relocate emergency contraception where it belongs – out from behind pharmacy counters and next to the condoms and contraceptive jelly in a regular aisle. Today, emergency contraception, also called the “morning after pill” and available under the trade names Plan B, One-Step, and Next Choice is available without a prescription, but only for women age 17 and older. Pharmacies and clinics must keep it behind the counter and anyone seeking to buy it must show government issued identification proving their age in order to buy it without a prescription. Needless to say, these heavy-handed restrictions, unprecedented for drugs with over-the-counter status (OTC), make it harder and more stigmatizing for consumers to get the contraception during its most effective window. They also lack a scientific basis: Plan B has no known serious side effects or serious long-term health effects and scientists and medical experts agree that there are no medical grounds for denying women access to emergency contraception. After Plan B became available by prescription in 1999, we filed a Citizen’s Petition in 2001 on behalf of over 70 medical and public health organizations requesting that the FDA make emergency contraception available over the counter. The manufacturer of the drug also applied for OTC status in 2003. That same year, after reviewing the scientific evidence, the FDA’s expert Advisory Committee unanimously agreed that Plan B was safe for non-prescription settings, and voted 23 to four in favor of the switch to OTC status without any age or point-of-sale restrictions. Despite this clear conclusion, for the first time in 10 years, the FDA did not follow the recommendation of its Advisory Committee and denied the manufacturer’s application in 2004. Moreover, it delayed action on the Citizen’s Petition for years — long after it was required by law to respond. The Center for Reproductive Rights challenged this delay and the unprecedented restrictions in court.  After years of litigation and pressure from the court, the FDA finally allowed OTC status for women 18 years of age and over. This change was only a small breakthrough. In addition to the needless age distinction for OTC status, the FDA continued to impose the intrusive point-of-sale restrictions for non-prescription access that remain in place today. Our lawsuit demonstrated that the FDA’s decision to over-rule its scientists departed sharply from agency precedent and was the result of political influence from the Bush White House, and the federal judge hearing the case agreed. According to Judge Korman: “FDA upper management, including the Commissioner, wrested control over decision-making on Plan B from staff that normally would issue the final decision on an over-the-counter switch application, … and the Commissioner — at the behest of political actors — decided to deny non-prescription access to women 16 and younger before FDA scientific review staff had completed their reviews.” In short, FDA upper management politicized a decision that impacts the health and safety of women, and got caught red-handed. Judge Korman ordered the FDA to permit Plan B to be made available to 17-year-olds without a prescription immediately and to reconsider all of the remaining restrictions. Since the decision, the FDA has made EC available without a prescription to women 17 and older, an important but limited gain. But 12 months and multiple requests for information later, the FDA remains silent regarding its other unprecedented and unwarranted restrictions. A core promise of the Obama administration was to restore the scientific integrity of federal agencies and to act quickly to remedy the obvious and lamentable politicization of agency decision-making by the prior administration. The FDA’s continued inaction on this simple issue is therefore deeply disappointing. The agency already has sufficient scientific evidence on which it could base a reasoned decision to rescind the restrictions. We expect the FDA to safeguard our nation’s health by making decisions based on sound, well-documented science, not political or ideological imperatives. A federal court ruling has already demanded action — and public health demands quick action as well. The FDA should stop dragging its heels and make emergency contraception available over the counter to all women without restriction. With backtracking on abortion now encoded in the law, access to emergency contraception looks now more important than ever.



Blog originally posted at RH Reality Check.


Related Posts

Complaint: Medical Students for Choice vs. Wright

Abortion,United States, Accountability Bodies,Engaging Policymakers

Testimony of the Center for Reproductive Rights on the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson Proposal

The Center for Reproductive Rights respectfully submits the following testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance in strong opposition...

Abortion, Legal Restrictions, Other Barriers, Contraception, Legal Restrictions, Funding for Reproductive Healthcare, Other Financial Barriers, Right to Care, Maternal Health,United States,Engaging Policymakers

June Medical Services v. Gee: Petition for Attorney’s Fees

Abortion, Legal Restrictions,United States,In the Courts, Engaging Policymakers, In the States (USA)

Sign up for email updates.

The most up-to-date news on reproductive rights, delivered straight to you.

Footer Menu

  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Gift Acceptance Policy
  • Contact Us

Center for Reproductive Rights
© (1992-2024)

Use of this site signifies agreement with our disclaimer and privacy policy.

Better Business Bureau Charity Watch Top Rated Center for Reproductive Rights
This site uses necessary, analytics and social media cookies to improve your experience and deliver targeted advertising. Click "Options" or click here to learn more and customize your cookie settings, otherwise please click "Accept" to proceed.
OPTIONSACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors.
_gat_UA-6619340-11 minuteNo description
_gid1 dayThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form.
_parsely_session30 minutesThis cookie is used to track the behavior of a user within the current session.
HotJar: _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjFirstSeen30 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjid1 yearThis cookie is set by Hotjar. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
HotJar: _hjIncludedInPageviewSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjIncludedInSessionSample2 minutesNo description
HotJar: _hjTLDTestsessionNo description
SSCVER1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for online advertising by creating user profile based on their preferences.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
_fbp3 monthsThis cookie is set by Facebook to deliver advertisement when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising after visiting this website.
fr3 monthsThe cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisments to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behavior of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.
IDE1 year 24 daysUsed by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile.
IMRID1 year 24 daysThe domain of this cookie is owned by Nielsen. The cookie is used for storing the start and end of the user session for nielsen statistics. It helps in consumer profiling for online advertising.
personalization_id2 yearsThis cookie is set by twitter.com. It is used integrate the sharing features of this social media. It also stores information about how the user uses the website for tracking and targeting.
TDID1 yearThe cookie is set by CloudFare service to store a unique ID to identify a returning users device which then is used for targeted advertising.
test_cookie15 minutesThis cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user's browser supports cookies.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
adEdition1 dayNo description
akaas_MSNBC10 daysNo description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional1 yearThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others1 yearNo description
geoEdition1 dayNo description
next-i18next1 yearNo description
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo
Scroll Up