Pro-Abortion Lawsuit Wants FDA to Sell Morning After Pill OTC to Teens 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 12, 2006
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — A pro-abortion law firm has filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration over its recent decision to allow over the counter sales of the morning after pill. The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a legal complaint in an attempt to force the agency to extend the sales to teenagers under the age of 18.
When the FDA entered into an agreement with Barr Laboratories, the maker of the Plan B drug, it prohibited anyone under 18 from purchasing the morning after pill without a prescription.
That hasn’t gone over well with abortion advocates and CRR, representing several pro-abortion women, filed a complaint against the federal agency in a federal court in Brooklyn this week.
The complaint replaces a similar one the group had filed against the FDA previously over its previous postponements on whether or not it would allow over the counter sales.
The previous complaint featured a debate between the pro-abortion law firm and the White House over whether it had to submit documents of discussions between the Bush administration and the FDA about the legal status of the Plan B drug.
According to an Associated Press report, attorneys for the FDA appeared in the Brooklyn federal court Wednesday and asked a magistrate to stop CRR from getting access to any more government documents until a ruling is handed down about whether the new legal complaint can proceed.
Judge Viktor V. Pohorelsky did not rule on the request but hinted that he would likely side with CRR to allow its lawyers to continue getting government documents. He appeared to believe it was the only way to confirm the Bush administration’s potential influence on the OTC approval process.
"It’s not like they’re fishing," Pohorelsky said of the pro-abortion attorneys.
But, Assistant U.S. Attorney F. Franklin Amanat said the CRR attorneys had not produced enough evidence to meet the typically high standards that must be met for the release of confidential presidential records.
"They have nothing but speculation, hearsay, innuendo and opinions," he said, according to the AP report.
The FDA has said that it made its decision on the over the counter sales on scientific grounds and that its decision should be upheld even if the Bush administration lobbied it.
A Utah doctor who was a member of a Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel says the morning after pill will not reduce the number of abortions and pregnancies that its supports claim it will do. He also indicated that the Plan B drug can work as an abortion agent in certain circumstances.
Dr. Joseph Stanford, associate professor of family and preventative medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said the morning after pill won’t be as effective as its maker claims.
He told the Deseret News that studies he and fellow researchers have done show a lower effectiveness rate than the 89 percent Barr Laboratories claims.
"We did more a precise meta-analysis that shows it’s effective only 72 percent of the time, and even that number is optimistic," he indicated.
He also told the newspaper that studies from Europe, China and the United States show that the morning after pill does not reduce abortions. In fact, new abortion figures in England and Scotland show that abortions have reached their highest point ever despite over the counter sales of Plan B.
"In all cases, they found there was no effect on abortion rates and unintended pregnancy rates," he says.
