EDITORIAL – FDA abandons morals for sense

After months of stalling and years of delay, the Food and Drug Administration — which has… After months of stalling and years of delay, the Food and Drug Administration — which has been acting more like a moral police than a public health board lately — has ruled in favor of allowing Plan B, or emergency contraception (EC), to be sold over the counter.

Woman 18 and older are now able to purchase Plan B over the counter in pharmacies across the country. Girls under 18 will still have to seek a prescription from health care professionals to obtain the medication.

It is still the pharmacies’ prerogative to carry the pill, a move that will limit the availability of the drug. Before Plan B was moved over the counter, some pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions, which proved to be a point of contention between pharmacies and women’s rights activists.

The controversy surrounding the availability of Plan B turned the ruling into one of the most contentious issues in the history of the FDA. This is one of the main reasons why it has taken so long to come to this decision. While EC has been proven medically safe for women, the moral issues surrounding the nature of the drug held up the process of making it more widely available.

Groups opposed to abortion are outraged with the FDA’s decision, crying that the only thing that will result from this is an increase in sexually transmitted diseases. Abortion rights organizations counter that making Plan B more available might reduce the number of abortions — more than one-million — in the United States each year.

But studies say both groups are wrong in their assertions. According to a New York Times article, couples in the United States are having a lot of unprotected sex — half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Even though Plan B is easier to obtain, there is no evidence that couples who regularly practice unprotected sex would use it.

“Emergency contraceptives don’t work if, like condoms, they’re left in the drawer,” Dr. James Trussell said in the article.

Sure, making Plan B available to people engaging in unprotected, consensual sex is a good idea but we’re happy about the decisions for other reasons.

Plan B is most effective with timely use. Sure it can be taken anytime in the first 120 hours after unprotected sex, but with each passing hour, the medication’s effectiveness diminishes. Making Plan B available without a prescription means that women have access to it quicker. Rape victims and broken-condom victims will benefit also — after all, Plan B isn’t just used for what many would deem “irresponsible reasons.”

Unlike birth control — medication taken over a long period of time — a doctor’s supervision is unnecessary to take the one-time Plan B dose, thus making prescriptions unnecessary.

It was inappropriately imposed morality that delayed Plan B’s arrival. Sure there is a risk of abuse, but there are risks that accompany most over-the-counter drugs. For many, the side effects of using Plan B are unpleasant enough to discourage relying on it as contraceptive — not to mention that it’s cost prohibitive.

The sad truth is that people are going to be stupid no matter what. A University of Pittsburgh Medical Center study found that accessibility does not dictate riskier behavior. Making Plan B more accessible to the people who need it is not going to increase acts of stupidity; rather it will make options for avoiding unwanted consequences more accessible.

Hopefully Plan B’s move over the counter will bring with it heightened awareness about safe-sex practices, and who people will use Plan B as it was intended — as an emergency backup plan.