Science at Last Trumps Ideology and Politics

It’s been a way too long time coming, and who knows how many thousands of women women have been denied access to reproductive health care they needed during the delay?

But good news: Today, a federal District Court ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acted improperly when it “repeatedly and unreasonably” dragged its heels and failed to issue a decision on emergency contraception (EC), and that there was no basis in science (not to mention the FDA’s own expert advisors) to have denied over-the-counter sales of EC to those aged 17 and under.

Emergency contraception is simply a high dose of birth control pills–contraception–that can prevent a pregnancy from occurring if taking within 72 hours after unprotected intercourse. Predictability groups that oppose birth control labeled EC an abortifacient and alleged that access to it would “cause” promiscuity–an old canard about as reasonable as blaming fire engines for causing fires. If a woman is pregnant already, EC won’t work, nor will it damage a fetus. The worst side effect that has been determined after decades of use is nausea.

From RHRealityCheck’s report on today’s court ruling:

According to the ACLU, the decision criticized the FDA for “allowing politics to interfere in its decision-making process.” Equally as significant, the ACLU notes, the court also states that “the FDA’s denial of non-prescription access without age restriction went against the recommendation of a committee of experts it had empanelled to advise it on Plan B [the brand name of the EC under consideration]; 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.”

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The gist of all of this is that, as health providers, advocates, and level-headed politicians desperately attempted to make clear back in 2006 during this challenge, denying women access to critical health care services for pure political gain or a sense of righteousness will not be tolerated in a democratic society. While it’s fulfilling to see justice prevail in this case, it’s important to keep in mind how many other reproductive health care challenges fall under this same umbrella.

In 2005, Senator Patty Murray and then-Senator Hillary Clinton took the lead in playing hardball (not the Chris Matthews kind, but the political kind) to delay confirmation of George W. Bush’s appointee to head up the FDA until a decision on EC, languishing for over a year, was reached. The FDA did finally determine EC could be sold without prescription to women 18 and over, but required Barr Laboratories, which distributes Plan B, to create new labeling to differentiate the EC provided–prescription only–to those 17 and under. In 2003, the FDA’s joint scientific advisory panels had voted 23-4 that there was no medical reason to deny Plan B to anyone of any age without prescription.

Could it be that with Obama’s election and the nation clearly trending back to the center, if not left of center, that the judiciary is regaining its independence from ideological pressures?

Whatever. For the moment, let’s just rejoice that justice has been done and that science has at last trumped ideology and politics.

3 Comments

  1. Stacy on March 24, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    A bit off topic but it’s about contraception- given their piss-poor product safety, can you think of anything worse than condoms from China?

  2. Gloria Feldt on March 25, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    Stacy, I did a little querying before replying to you here. While I was @ PPFA, we licensed our own label of condoms and thus we had to make quite a study of condom manufacturers here and all over the world–quality, price, comfort, etc. I had to learn more than I ever wanted to know about condoms, but there were others on staff who knew a lot more than I did. So I asked the folks who had been in charge of that project. Seems that there is quite a bit of variance from company to company in China. You can get the best condoms in the world there, I am told, as well as some that are too thick or otherwise of lesser quality or attractiveness to users. So I’m not sure that this article is totally without bias. Hope this sheds some light.

  3. Hayden Bologna on July 26, 2011 at 9:54 am

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