Judge to FDA: Rethink limits on morning-after pill

Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A federal court Monday ordered the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider the agency’s controversial decision limiting nonprescription access to the morning-after pill Plan B to women age 18 and older.

U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman ordered the FDA to make Plan B available to women age 17 and older within 30 days and to reconsider whether to make the drug available to women of all ages without a prescription.

In his 52-page decision, Judge Korman said the “record is clear that the FDA’s course of conduct regarding Plan B departed in significant ways from the agency’s normal procedures regarding similar applications to switch a drug from prescription to nonprescription use.”

Critics of the FDA’s position hailed the ruling.

“We’re very excited,” said Suzanne Novak, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed a lawsuit against the agency to reverse the 2005 decision.