{"id":7238,"date":"2006-04-26T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2006-04-26T14:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7238"},"modified":"2006-04-26T10:00:04","modified_gmt":"2006-04-26T14:00:04","slug":"plan-b-the-fda-and-sex-based-cults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/plan-b-the-fda-and-sex-based-cults\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan B, the FDA, and ‘sex-based cults’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly two years ago, an [tag]FDA[\/tag] advisory panel voted 23 to 4 to approve over-the-counter access to Plan B [tag]emergency contraception[\/tag]. One FDA panel member called it the “safest drug that we have seen brought before us.” The scientific evidence was overwhelming and access to [tag]Plan B[\/tag] would curtail abortion and unwanted pregnancies. This was a no-brainer — right up until the administration blocked the medication anyway, under pressure from its far-right base.<\/p>\n

Ever since, the Bush gang has struggled to come up with a coherent explanation for the decision. Initially, then-Commissioner Lester Crawford cited FDA concerns about selling the drug to younger teens as a reason to keep Plan B off shelves. Then we learned Crawford was lying<\/a> and the FDA had no such concerns. Some administration allies then insisted that Plan B may not be safe, but medical experts here and around the world say otherwise.<\/p>\n

Digby noted<\/a> yesterday the most outlandish explanation of all.<\/p>\n

In the memo released by the FDA, Dr. Curtis Rosebraugh, an agency medical officer, wrote: “As an example, [Dr. Janet Woodcock, deputy operations commissioner for the FDA] stated that we could not anticipate, or prevent extreme promiscuous behaviors such as the medication taking on an ‘urban legend’ status that would lead adolescents to form [tag]sex-based cults[\/tag] centered around the use of Plan B<\/b>.” (emphasis added)<\/p>\n

Rosebraugh indicated he found no reason to bar nonprescription sales of Plan B.<\/p>\n

“This was the level of scientific discourse,” Heller said in an interview, referring to concerns attributed to Woodcock. “I find it very odd that these people who are supposed to be responsible scientists and doctors are making up wacky reasons.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Look, peer-reviewed studies published in mainstream medical publications have repeatedly found there is no link<\/a> between access to Plan B and risky sexual behavior, worse yet “sex-based cults.” How these Bush-appointed “[tag]scientists[\/tag]” come up with such nonsense is a mystery.<\/p>\n

Is it too much to ask that the administration just admit that politics is driving this process, so the Bush gang can give up on these bizarre rationalizations?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly two years ago, an [tag]FDA[\/tag] advisory panel voted 23 to 4 to approve over-the-counter access to Plan B [tag]emergency contraception[\/tag]. One FDA panel member called it the “safest drug that we have seen brought before us.” The scientific evidence was overwhelming and access to [tag]Plan B[\/tag] would curtail abortion and unwanted pregnancies. This was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}