Sarah Kliff sorts through the administration’s reasoning for abandoning its attempt to put age limits on access to Plan B contraception. Aaron Carroll, who has repeatedly criticized the administration’s handling of the Plan B issue, gives credit where credit is due:
It’s important to remember that this isn’t the Obama administration striking out into uncharted territory. This is them now getting in line with science. When Sec. Sebelius previously overruled the FDA, that was the first time ever a secretary of HHS had done so. It’s also important to remember that no matter how much they claimed that “research was needed” to understand how adolescents would use the drug, that research had already been conducted, and was why the FDA had granted its approval. … No one is demanding any of those drugs be restricted in this manner. And if any of you make a crack about Plan B being sold next to “bubblegum and batteries”, I’ll remind you again that battery ingestions kill a couple kids each year. Plan B kills no one.
Susannah Baruch isn’t celebrating yet:
In the court filing, the administration sounds like a kid who knows he’s in trouble but is still trying to see just how much he can get away with. The government does not include the two-pill version of emergency contraception in its plan, even though a higher court just last week ordered it to make that version available without restrictions. The administration also hints that they may give Teva, the manufacturer of Plan B One-Step, some marketing exclusivity, which means it would be several years before the cheaper generic version is fully available to the same extent. And while the FDA promises to approve Plan B One-Step “without delay,” after a decade of nothing but delay, that promise feels a little empty.
The Dish 