Blogs / Cosmic Variance

Of course the news came out on a Friday afternoon, when it might be buried in the under-read Saturday papers (and I was trying to stay away from the internets for a while, and then a huge hurricane hit… but this is still important) : the FDA has decided to indefinitely postpone approval of Plan B, the so-called “morning after pill”, aka emergency contreception (EC). From the
NYT article:

For more than a year, federal drug officials have insisted that their repeated delays in deciding whether to approve over-the-counter sales of a morning-after contraceptive have nothing to do with abortion politics. Among veterans of the battles over drug approvals here, it is hard to find anyone who believes them.

The most recent study on EC (which, for those who are unaware, is just a high dose of normal birth control pills: sometimes with estrogen and progestin, sometimes just progestin) suggests that in the majority of cases, it prevents pregnancy by inhibiting ovulation or fertilization (ie, just like normal birth control pills) — and not by preventing implantation. There is no evidence that EC can effect an implanted fertilized egg in any way; it cannot abort it and it does not seem to harm it. Much of the hubbub is also about whether girls under the age of 18 can understand how to use the drug properly; there is also no evidence that 16 and 17 year olds can’t understand how to take a few pills, or any evidence of stronger adverse effects on girls under 18 — except, of course, for the fact that then they might not be sufficiently punished for having sex.

These facts make it pretty clear that at least for the bulk of the anti-abortion movement, it’s not about saving babies, it’s about controling women. If you want to prevent abortions, over the counter emergency contreception is a proven, excellent way to do it. If you want to prevent women from controlling their own lives, not so good. (Note: Amanda at Pandagon makes this same point better and snarkier…)

More info on emergency contreception here, with details about how to use normal birth control pills. Planned parenthood has an action alert here.

At least someone who (was) still left in the Adminstration had some balls (so to speak): the women’s health chief at the Food and Drug Administration resigned today over the decision. Here’s what she had to say:

”I have spent the last 15 years working to ensure that science informs good health-policy decisions,” Wood, director of FDA’s Office of Women’s Health, wrote in an e-mail about her departure to agency colleagues. ”I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended by the professional staff here, has been overruled.”

Wood said the final decision was made not in FDA’s usual manner but ”at the commissioner level … where most if not all of the professional staff were excluded.” Nor has FDA ever raised questions about teen use of other drugs, she said.

This should have been a medical and scientific decision, not a political one. Bravo for her.