HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Overrides FDA Decision to Make Emergency Contraception Broadly Accessible

The facts in this case are clear. After a thorough and months-long review of the evidence by the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced on December 7 that she concurred with the Center’s recommendation to make the emergency contraceptive available as a nonprescription drug. She stated that there is “adequate and reasonable, well-supported and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for nonprescription use for all females of childbearing potential.”
Yet despite the official commitment of the Obama administration to scientific accountability in political decision-making, Secretary Sebelius ignored that body of evidence, overriding the FDA decision. Her stated rationale? To ensure that teens as young as 11 years old would not be able to obtain the medication without guidance from a health care professional. However, Sebelius’ focus on 11-year-olds is specious. Fewer than 1% of 11-year-old girls are sexually active, but almost half of girls have had sex by their 17th birthdays, and most of these begin at age 15 or 16. Recent government data from the National Survey of Family Growth suggest that the age restriction on emergency contraception has limited use of the method among this demographic, even as use increased substantially among older teens and young adults. Continuing to restrict access will only increase the number of teens faced with an unintended pregnancy.