Plan B: Elusive Solution

Newsweek, September, 2005 by Susannah Meadows and Debra Rosenberg

When the Food and Drug Administration announced Aug. 26 it was again delaying a decision on whether to make Plan B--the morning-after pill--available over the counter for women 17 and older, Commissioner Lester Crawford cited the problem of limiting distribution to younger teens. Now there's a growing chorus of critics questioning the agency's justification for the delay. Dr. Susan Wood, who resigned from the FDA last week in protest, tells NEWSWEEK, "It's just not convincing to me that we could not come up with a solution" to allow Plan B to be sold over the counter. Kirsten Moore of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project believes that the FDA's latest move reflects a concern about teen promiscuity, not safety. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray, with 11 colleagues, are...

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