On Friday, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn denied FDA’s bid to obtain a stay on an order over “morning after” pills. In the order, Korman criticized FDA’s policy of restricting access to emergency contraceptive pills according to age limits and ruled “morning after pills” should be made available to women of all ages, across the counter, and without prescription.
Originally, in April, Korman directed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make the “morning after” pills of “Plan B” drugs available to girls of all ages. At the time Korman made his original decision, the pills were available without a prescription to
While appealing Korman’s decision at the courts, last month, the FDA observed that it was thinking of allowing girls aged 15 years or more to buy the drugs after presenting identity documents at pharmacies.
The FDA also moved for a stay on Korman’s order, which was denied on Friday. The FDA has until May 13 to ask the federal appeals court in Manhattan to ask for a stay of the order which would otherwise come into effect by Friday.
In his decision on Friday, Korman scathingly criticized Kathleen Sebelius, the Health and Human Services Secretary and observed that in requesting the stay, government lawyers showed that they were functioning in an “alternate reality,” in “bad faith,” and being “politically motivated.”
Korman noted in his decision that initially the Food and Drug Administration had made the decision to allow access to the drug without a prescription to everyone who felt the need. However, Sebelius had overruled the decision of the FDA without “any medical or scientific expertise” and undermined the drug approval process of the nation.
Friday’s order noted, “The FDA is not the problem… The cause of the rejection of over-the-counter sale of …. emergency contraceptives was the secretary of Health and Human Services.”
Korman also observed that the argument presented by the government lawyers “ignores the fact that the FDA found that the drug was safe and could be used properly without a doctor’s prescription.”
In a publicly issued statement, Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights said, “Judge Koran’s sound ruling simply orders the government to do what the experts at FDA have been trying to do for years: to put politics aside and let science guide us to a policy that makes emergency contraception readily accessible to all women when they need it most urgently.”
