No Regrets: Brooklyn judge makes morning-after pill available to all
The Food and Drug Administration must make emergency contraceptives available to girls of all ages within 30 days, a federal judge has ruled, saying the agency’s decisions regarding the so-called morning-after pill were “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.
Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn released the decision Friday, though it was dated Thursday. He had warned in the past that he was unhappy with the way the FDA had handled the issue, saying it had failed to engage in rulemaking to adopt an age-restricted marketing regime.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups have argued that contraceptives are being held to a different and non-scientific standard than other drugs and that politics has played a role in decision making. Social conservatives have said the pill is tantamount to abortion.