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:

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If Bush Decides Contraception is Abortion, it Must Be True, Right?

Why would anybody be surprised that the Bush administration plans to propose new federal regulations allowing health care providers to run roughshod over established scientific and medical principles, even when they are doing it with your taxpayer money?

After all, Bush’s first official act after taking office was to issue an executive order reinstating the global gag rule, which prevents international family planning programs receiving U. S. Funding from even uttering the word abortion. Why would anybody be surprised that an administration willing to breach medical ethics by preventing doctors from giving patients full information about their health care options is also willing in its waning days to go the second mile for its zealous anti-choice base and redefine medical ethics to suit their ideology? Even to redefine important forms of contraception as abortion?

The right has made sexual matters unspeakable while the left and center have made it a central tenet to keep these matters private. No wonder that even the public discussion of reproductive issues so often gets giggles and Bush’s minions get a free ride as they go about their merry way to steamroller science with their ideology.

Here’s some of the text of the proposed regulations, explained by Cristina Page’s excellent analysis on RHRealityCheck:

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