A rare victory for science and humanity
In what has to be counted as an extremely rare victory for science, the FDA finally went along (for the most part) with the recommendation its own panel of scientists and approved PlanB, "the morning after pill." Women under 18 still need a doctor's prescription, so it's not the total victory some reproductive and women's advocacy groups wanted, but it's a lion's share better than what it looked like was going to happen as recently as a few months ago.
I've been following this story fairly closely as a marker of the current administration's war on science. It's fascinating to me that after many indications that the administration was not just influencing, but completely changing the FDA's policies, suddenly the FDA basically did what it had initially said it would.
The question now, for me anyway, is why?
Did science truly prevail, or are the Bush administration's ideologically-based policies losing grip as the administration loses influence in the wake of subterranean approval ratings and a failing war?
I've been following this story fairly closely as a marker of the current administration's war on science. It's fascinating to me that after many indications that the administration was not just influencing, but completely changing the FDA's policies, suddenly the FDA basically did what it had initially said it would.
The question now, for me anyway, is why?
Did science truly prevail, or are the Bush administration's ideologically-based policies losing grip as the administration loses influence in the wake of subterranean approval ratings and a failing war?
posted by thesunwolf at 12:37 PM
1 Comments:
Not sure if I had responded to this already . . . as you know, I work for a program that offers Plan B (among many other reproductive-health based things) to California women. This was, as you say, a victory for science.
Maybe not rare though . . . oral contraceptives were introduced to the public 40 years ago, not even a full generation after women gained the right to vote.
The FDA has many problems, not just in how it deals with issues involving women. Many great medicines aren't approved, by what seem to me, arbitrary reasons. it would be easy to point the finger at the big pharmacutical industry, but I'm not sure how much of that would lay in truth.
While this is a victory, we must still remember that while the FDA has approved it, access (especially in rural areas) can still be sparse.
Long live the revolution :)
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