Plan B approved

Just got this from Grassfire.org:

As feared, The Food and Drug Administration has announced its approval of Plan B (known as the "morning after pill"), to be sold over-the-counter for women age 18 and older.

Plan B is an exceedingly strong emergency contraception pill. In fact, according to Planned Parenthood, Plan B can be equivalent to taking as many as 40 progesterone birth control pills--which are only available by prescription!

Aside from this case, the FDA has never approved an over-the-counter medicine when a lower dose of the same drug requires a prescription.

This "dual status" (over-the-counter for women over the age of 16 and prescription-only for those who are younger) is a new type of approval plan--not authorized by Congress, and hasn't undergone a formal rule-making process.

Also in question is the FDA's ability to ensure that store clerks are checking age ID for Plan B. Reservations about illegal resale to minors, concerns about child predators and rapist obtaining the drug to cover their crimes, have also been swept aside.

Serious concerns also remain about the potential deleterious effects of Plan B on women, girls and nascent human life.

Grassfire has put together a number of key links to give you greater insight about Plan B and the FDA announcement:

FDA announcement:

http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01436.html

Acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach's memo:

http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/planB/avememo.pdf.

Key websites explaining concerns with the availability of Plan B:

http://www.cwfa.org/articles/11365/BLI/dotcommentary/index.htm,

http://www.cwfa.org/hot-topics.asp#map

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IF06H01&f=WA06H29

http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/contraception/morningafterpill.htm.