Bush Administration Breaks Promise to Make Decision on ‘Morning-After Pill’ by September 1
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"FDA delays decision about pill and young teens"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 26, 2005
Bush Administration Breaks Promise to Make Decision
on ‘Morning-After Pill’ by September 1
(Seattle, WA) – Late this afternoon the Food and Drug Administration’s announced that it would not make a decision on whether American women should be allowed to purchase Plan B, or the “morning-after pill,” over the counter.
“The Bush administration explicitly promised the Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) that the FDA would stop dragging its feet and issue a decision by September 1. In another Friday afternoon special, the Bush administration has once broken a promise to the American people and gone back on women’s rights,” said Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.
Senator Murray secured the written promise that a decision would be issued by September 1st as part of an agreement to lift her hold on the nomination of Lester Crawford to the post of FDA commissioner. The morning-after pill is an emergency contraceptive that significantly reduces a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant after sex or sexual assault. The announcement today comes after over two years of stalling on the application to change the status of emergency contraception to over the counter.
“The FDA’s delay flies in the face of an American majority that believes more should be done to reduce unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion. Scientists, doctors, and Americans across the political spectrum support giving women, especially survivors of sexual assault, better access to the morning-after pill to prevent unintended pregnancies”, Cooper continued.
NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is a state affiliate of NARAL Pro-Choice America. NARAL Pro-Choice America directed a recent campaign that generated more than 26,000 messages from all 50 states to the FDA urging approval of the proposal to change the status of the morning-after pill to over the counter.
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Contact: Karen Cooper 206-624-1990 (office)
206-236-0568 (home)
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