The next time you walk into a drugstore, you may have access to the morning-after pill without a prescription. On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, said that it will reconsider the approval of selling Plan B, a popular form of the morning-after pill, without a prescription. Plan B is a form of emergency contraception intended to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex, according to Olin Health Center.
Making Plan B available without a prescription is beneficial because it would help women stop unwanted pregnancies and possibly avoid abortions.
In December 2003, independent scientific advisors from the FDA supported the approval of the drug with overwhelming evidence of its safety. Despite this, the decision to approve Plan B for over-the-counter sales was delayed last August while the idea of enforcing an age rule was discussed. Now, nearly a year later, the FDA has changed its opinion after reviewing about 47,000 opinions from the public that supported the view that Plan B should be available with and without a prescription.
If scientific information isn't enough to approve the more open availability of Plan B, then social statistics should help.
According to the University of Pennsylvania Health System, there are more than 3 million unintentional pregnancies in the United States every year. Contraception advocates say that making Plan B more easily accessible will cut this figure in half.
But opponents of the FDA's approval of making Plan B more accessible worry that it will promote promiscuity and increase the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
But does easy access to condoms and other forms of over-the-counter contraceptives encourage promiscuity?
Similar to condoms, Plan B is a means to avoid unwanted pregnancies. In fact, conservatives should support Plan B because it has the potential to decrease abortion rates.
The government decides who can get married, who can vote and in what wars our country fight. Political policies and agendas should not leak into medicine, though.
The FDA's late decision to reconsider approving Plan B for over-the-counter sales shows the impact U.S. politics have on an individual's life. By reconsidering making Plan B more accessible, the FDA is making the right move in separating itself from politics.
Distributing Plan B over the counter would solve a lot of problems. From less unwanted pregnancies to lower abortion rates, Plan B is Grade A.
