FDA approves Plan B for girls as young as 15

By: American Decency Staff

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said it would allow the Plan B One-Step contraceptive to be sold without a prescription to girls as young as 15 years of age.

The announcement partially reverses a December 2011 decision that prevented the sale of the emergency contraceptive to all females of reproductive age, which was also overturned by a U.S. district judge in New York on April 5. The FDA said its approval was not related to the judge's ruling.

Instead, the agency said it was responding to an amended marketingapplication from Teva Women's Health Inc, a unit of Plan B maker TevaPharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. Teva originally applied to sell Plan B to all females of reproductive age, but changed its latest bid to those 15 and older after 2011. The amended application was pending when Judge Edward Korman handed down his ruling, the FDA said.

The pill known as "Plan B" has long been at the center of political and religious battles. The FDA initially approved sale of the drug to all reproductive age females, but was ordered to bar girls under 17 by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who came under fire from women's activists who accused her of bowing to political pressure from social conservatives.

Read More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/30/us-usa-contraception-fda-idUSBRE93T18Y20130430?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=22

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