FDA
Another Pharmacy Refuses to Sell Emergency Contraception to a Man
Another pharmacy in Texas has refused to sell emergency contraception to a man.
Physician to President's Scientific Advisors: Plan B Decision Hurt Science, Medicine, Women's Health
by Douglas Laube, Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health
January 6, 2012 - 2:41pm (Print)
"As doctors, we prescribe and recommend Plan B to adolescents and adults, knowing it is safer than Tylenol and many other products sold on drugstores' open shelves."
FDA Approves Human Trials for Anti-HIV Vaccine
The first and only preventative HIV vaccine based on a genetically modified killed whole virus has received approval by the US FDA to start human clinical trials. Developed by Dr. Chil-Yong Kang and his team at The University of Western Ontario, the vaccine (SAV001) holds tremendous promise; it has already proven to stimulate strong immune responses in preliminary toxicology tests with no adverse effects or safety risks.
The EC Decision: Dismissing the Concerns of Latinas and Low-Income Women
by Ryann Dubiel, Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR)
December 19, 2011 - 9:55am (Print)
The Administration's decision to ignore medical and scientific evidence and deny increased access to Plan-B suggests a failure to understand and acknowledge the effects of this decision on Latinas, women of color, undocumented immigrants and low-income women.
The Plan B Decision: Sacrificing "Change We Can Believe In" for Expediency?
December 19, 2011 - 8:52am (Print)
We cannot let the Democrats, let our president, lose sight of what this decades-old debate about access to all forms of reproductive healthcare is really about; that is, for women to have any sort of autonomy and self-determination within our society.
Denying OTC Access to Plan B Disproportionately Affects Latina Teens
by Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
December 13, 2011 - 11:31am (Print)
Whether President Obama was compelled to weave the bubble gum narrative for political gain or because it truly reflects his thinking, the result is the same. Complex sexual health issues get overly simplified, society focuses on stigma more than solution, and young people are left with policy decisions that don't begin to match the weight of their lived experiences nor keep them "safe."
Vulnerable Women and Contraception: Obama Turns Clock Back Nearly 100 Years
by Carole Joffe, University of California
December 13, 2011 - 10:40am (Print)
A critique of reproductive politics written in the 1970s about events in the ‘20s and ‘30s is remarkably relevant to today’s leading reproductive controversy: the Obama Administration’s overruling of the FDA decision to allow over-the-counter status of Plan B emergency contraception for young women under the age of seventeen.
NARAL Pro-Choice NY President Andrea Miller & Others Discuss EC Decision on NY1
On December 7, 2011, NARAL Pro-Choice NY was outraged to hear that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius blocked the FDA's approval of Plan B One-Step for over-the-counter sale for all ages; one thing that pro & anti choice groups agree on in this case is that this decision made by the Obama Administration was entirely political.
See all our coverage of the Administration's 2011 Emergency Contraception Reversal here.
Restricting Plan B Is Bad Politics
by Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check
December 12, 2011 - 10:34am (Print)
Kathleen Sebelius clearly upheld restrictions on emergency contraception as a naked political move, but it wasn't even smart politics. Young women, a big voting bloc for Democrats, are insulted and will likely be demoralized by this decision.
Follow Amanda Marcotte on Twitter, @amandamarcotte
A Young Doctor's Response to President Obama's Plan B Failure: Where Is the Scientific Integrity?
December 11, 2011 - 9:58am (Print)
Experts, who we count on for guidance and sound evidence-based medicine, have repeatedly shown Plan B to be not only extremely effective, but incredibly safe. Although the experts in the FDA agreed with the well-researched and well-presented data on Plan B, Secretary Sebelius and President Obama chose to ignore their expertise and base their decision on politics, not science.
