What interesting timing:
Women may buy the morning-after pill without a prescription — but only with proof they’re 18 or older, federal health officials ruled Thursday, capping a contentious 3-year effort to ease access to the emergency contraceptive.
Girls 17 and younger still will need a doctor’s note to buy the pills, called Plan B, the Food and Drug Administration told manufacturer Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.
The compromise decision is a partial victory for women’s advocacy and medical groups that say eliminating sales restrictions could cut in half the nation’s number of unplanned pregnancies. Opponents have argued that wider access could increase promiscuity.
The pills are a concentrated dose of the same drug found in many regular birth-control pills. When a woman takes the pills within 72 hours of unprotected sex, they can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent. If she already is pregnant, the pills have no effect.
Now what makes the timing on this interesting? Well – this Monday, during his press conference, Bush for the first time stated his position on Plan-B. His position? To make it available to those 18 or over and under 18 requires a prescription. In other words, it looks like Bush set the policy on Plan-B, and only after three years of hold ups over it.