NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA BACKS BILL CALLING ON FDA TO ACT ON ‘MORNING-AFTER PILL’
Washington, DC— Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called on Congress to pass new legislation introduced today by Rep. Carolyn Maloney
(D-NY) that would require the Food and Drug Administration to end two years of delay and make a decision on whether women may have over-the-counter access to emergency contraception.
The legislation, the "Plan B for Plan B Act," would give FDA 30 days to approve or deny the application for the Plan B emergency contraceptive, often referred to as the “morning-after pill." If the agency continues to drag its feet, the application is assumed to be approved - and women will finally have easier access to this important means of preventing unintended pregnancy.
“This is a courageous step by Rep. Maloney. American women have been waiting for more than two years for the FDA to decide whether they can have access to emergency contraception that could prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion,” Keenan said. “It should not take an act of Congress to get a federal agency to do its job, but the FDA continues to drag its feet. The agency’s own experts and scientists have overwhelmingly recommended giving women over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill.
This bill doesn’t tell the FDA whether or not to approve the application.
It simply insists that the Bush administration stop stalling and make a decision.”
Keenan said she is awaiting the release of a final report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on FDA’s handling of this petition. An October
14 story in the Washington Post describes that “the agency's decision-making process on Plan B as highly unusual because officials in the commissioner's office were directly involved and the FDA office directors who normally rule on applications refused to sign the rejection letter. An FDA advisory panel earlier voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal.” This confirms earlier reports in which insiders lament the political interference they believe has stalled the application for more than two years.
NARAL Pro-Choice America is a national leader in this effort and first urged the FDA to give women better access to the morning-after pill almost five years ago. NARAL Pro-Choice America directed a recent campaign that channeled more than 26,000 messages from activists in all 50 states to the FDA.
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