The debate continues in earnest at the FDA:
Federal drug regulators on Friday once again delayed making a decision on allowing over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, saying they needed more time to gather public reaction to the plan and to figure out how they could enforce it.
Plan B DeniedThe announcement infuriated Democrats and abortion rights advocates, who said the Food and Drug Administration allowed politics to trump science. Abortion opponents, however, said the application should be rejected.
Lester M. Crawford, the commissioner of food and drugs, said in a news conference that his agency had decided that the science supported giving over-the-counter access of the drug to women 17 and older, but that the agency could not figure out how to do that from regulatory and practical standpoints without younger teenagers’ obtaining the pills, too.
The application “presented us with many difficult and novel policy and regulatory issues,” Dr. Crawford said.
Is there really any legitimate reason for delay of this product, or is this just politics? Why does the FDA need more ‘public reaction’ before determining whether a drug is safe?
A cynical person, like me, might think this decision has been delayed because the administration does now want a defeat for the religious right to come before their support will be needed for the Roberts nomination. Of course, I could just be wrong (and we’ll just add that to the long list of things I am wrong about on a daily basis).