Condemning young women to misery
– for a few votes

May 17, 2004

All by himself, acting against all the medical and scientific advice of his own department, and against his own final review panel's 23-4 vote to approve, the acting director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research refused to allow the emergency contraception drug, Plan B, to be sold without a prescription.

His excuse was that young 14-year-old women might not be able to follow the instruction label.

With that lame excuse, he condemned young women to suffer pregnancies that can be nothing but tragedies. What 14 or 15 year old is ready to bear a child and able to support one? The question answers itself.

A safe and effective means is available, right now, to avoid such tragedies – tragedies for the mother and for the child! But for other reasons, one FDA administrator made sure that these tragedies will continue to occur. And that other reason is votes for Bush.

The Bush administration wants the votes of the most extreme religious fundamentalists, a very important part of Bush's base. They are ready to throw away the lives, the health and welfare of very young women – and the children they will be forced to bear – to pander to the prejudices of that voting bloc.

It reveals just how brutally backward those religious prejudices are, in action.