Plan B: What Took So Long?

Plan B, the emergency contraception pill, has finally been approved by the FDA as an over-the-counter medication. But it comes with caveats: you have to be 18, you have to buy it at a pharmacy, and it will be kept behind the counter, so you have to ask for it. The approval is the end […]

Plan B, the emergency contraception pill, has finally been approved by the FDA as an over-the-counter medication. But it comes with caveats: you have to be 18, you have to buy it at a pharmacy, and it will be kept behind the counter, so you have to ask for it. The approval is the end (sort of) of a three-year process that was strongly influenced by abortion politics and has delayed the conformation of three FDA commissioners. Here's what bioethicist Art Caplan has to say about it on MSNBC:.

While Americans grow increasingly incensed as they debate one another about the morality of abortion, a pill has been available for years that could have made a real difference in reducing the number of abortions. While they may forget this fact as they scream back and forth, pro-choicers and pro-lifers do in fact agree that lowering the number of abortions is a good thing.