A federal judge has ordered the US Food and Drug Administration to make “morning-after” emergency contraception pills available without a prescription to all girls of reproductive age and he criticised the Obama administration for interfering with the process for political purposes.
The ruling in a Brooklyn court is the latest step in the years-long legal saga over the pill known as Plan B, a drug that has also sparked political and religious battles.
Reproductive-rights groups cheered the decision as overdue, at the same time, however, anti-abortion and religious groups condemned it.
The order reverses a December 2011 decision by US health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius to limit the pill without prescription to women age 17 or older, a surprise move that countered an FDA recommendation for access at all ages and that President Barack Obama supported by invoking his daughters.
In his ruling, US district judge Edward Korman said the FDA’s rejection of requests to remove age restrictions was “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable”. He wrote: “The motivation for the secretary’s action was obviously political.” – (Reuters)