Via Jodi Jacobson at RH Reality Check:
In a long-awaited decision released early this morning, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make emergency contraception available over-the-counter to women of all ages, marking a major win for public health and women’s rights in a year that has seen science otherwise buried under an avalanche of anti-choice politics. In his decision, Judge Korman orders the FDA to make levonorgestrel-based emergency contraception available over-the-counter without an age or point-of-sale restriction.
Today’s order was issued in response to the Center for Reproductive Rights’ (CRR) renewed lawsuit against the agency seeking to expand over-the-counter access to all brands of the morning-after pill, including Plan B One-Step and Next Choice, to women of all ages.
The court has ordered the FDA to make emergency contraception available without a prescription and without point-of-sale or age restrictions within 30 days, with the option to limit the change to only Plan B One-Step if the agency “actually believes there is any significant difference between the one- and two-pill products” and to require new labeling if necessary.
Women’s rights groups are celebrating the decision.
Another Halocene Human
Nice. Interesting to see if/how they comply.
Now, if only the government would comply with the court order to make paper currency accessible to the blind. C’mon Obama, this would be a great last 18 months move. Actually, great post election 2016 move. No backsies! Just order the Mint to comply, toot sweet. Laugh while Congress rages. And the Chamber of Commerce. Go long NCR. Oh, since the cash register trays will all be replaced, go ahead and ditch the penny, resize nickels to a cheaper size (smaller than dime), and stop printing $1 bills. Ramp up $1 coin, float $2 coin proposal (no need to actually follow through b/c that will probably happen once $1 bill goes bye-bye). Speak at national vending machine repairmen’s union on last day in office. If there isn’t one, the trade association. **evil grin**
gbear
I can hear the fundegelical heads exploding in North Dakota from my house.
Too bad about that new abortion law, guys.
Cassidy
@gbear: I wish more fundies had used Plan B.
c u n d gulag
CUE THE ZYGOTE ZOMBIES!!!
gbear
Will women be able to buy this product via internet pharmacies so that they can’t be refused purchase at conservative local stores that won’t stock it?
Yutsano
Y WILL NO ONE THINK OF TEH ZYGOTE-AMERICANS??
lojasmo
Thanks for stomping on Mix’s den of firebaggery below.
That was a serious thanks.
Fuck that shit hole.
Cassidy
@lojasmo: I was about to start posting links to Kei$ha videos.
patrick II
@Cassidy:
To the chagrin of church leaders, many of them do — at least use birth control of some sort. It drives the leaders of the church crazy — they are being outpopulated. They want to restrict birth control in the church and stronger security at the border to keep away the dark, fecund heathen hordes.
Alison
Just for shits and giggles, I’d love to see them sell it in Pez dispensers. And instead of a cartoon character’s head on top, it could be a little uterus.
The Moar You Know
@lojasmo: Hey, I tried to interject some sanity, but it’s like trying to fill up an active volcano with a shovel.
Anya
Court mandated abortion? God is not amused by your godless actions, America. Just expect a harrican or floods to hit America anytime soon.
Yutsano
@Cassidy: Don’t make me fly to Jacksonville just to kick you.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Anya: Or for it to get hot. It’s not global warming, it’s retribution.
Paul in KY
Great news. Yay!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Another Halocene Human:
Oh please. Let’s think big picture here. Replace all the dollars bills and coinage with birth control pills and condoms and make them the coin of the realm, so we can transact all of our business using barely legal tender.
Del
Holy crap, didn’t see this one coming. I can practically feel the theocrats screams of “FREEDUMB!!!” already. This will be… interesting.
lojasmo
Seriously though, this is great news.
@The Moar You Know:
Indeed.
Violet
Saw something about this on a muted TV, but didn’t get the story. THanks for the link. Very unexpected outcome.
shortstop
@gbear: Best to take it within the first 24 hours of unprotected sexytimes.
Yutsano
@shortstop: It’s an emergency pill, so you’re right that timing is important. But it’s effective within 72 hours of use IIRC. Too lazy to Google it.
burnspbesq
Don’t get too far ahead of yourselves, boys and girls. As good as the District Court’s order is, it’s likely to be stayed pending appeal.
shortstop
@Yutsano: Right, but the drug manufacturer says most effective within the first 24 hours. The point is that if you can’t find a nearby pharmacy that will stock it, you’re really going to have to rush to get it FedExed to you in time.
shortstop
@Yutsano: Right, but the d.rug manufacturer says most effective within the first 24 hours. The point is that if you can’t find a nearby p.harmacy that will stock it, you’re really going to have to rush to get it FedExed to you in time.
shortstop
@burnspbesq: True. And that makes Frank Burns a very happy old goat. Almost as happy as when he’s telling Imani that she’s hysterically overreacting to some female problem or when he’s proclaiming that everyone’s outrage about GOP attacks on women’s health are a bunch of ado over nothing.
Anya
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): My brother’s born again christian MIL actually believes that the extereme weather is a punishment from god or a warning. It’s weird, she’s a Wesleyan U grad. I don’t know what happened to her. How can educated people turn into crazy fanatics?
Another Halocene Human
@Cassidy: The fundy Plan B is to rush to the hospital an hour away when the home birth goes wrong.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@shortstop: Which kind of defeats the purpose of the OTC ruling, since you’re parents would know you bought some if it gets FedEx’d.
low-tech cyclist
@gbear:
It sure sounds like it. From here:
Sounds like that would allow Internet pharmacies to sell it. (Lotsa luck in picketing the Internet, anti-choicers!)
shortstop
@Anya: Incapacitating fear of the new and the unknown. Some people are just more prone to it.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Anya:
Too much exposure to idealist philosophy and Wagnerian Opera.
shortstop
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Bwa!
Another Halocene Human
@lojasmo: I refuse to read that thread. But I suspect there is a lot of crying about Medicare “cuts”. Without looking at it I know Obama has a track record of attempting (not always succeeding, because lobbyists) to enact some ‘price discipline’ on the greedhead providers who have been making out like bandits giving themselves raises exceeding inflation for years and years.
Every time he tries the rubes, including many Democrats and liberals and lefties, go apeshit and think he’s cutting benefits.
I’m not sure how making the surgeon’s yacht payments or the drug salechick’s beemer payments or financing the addition to the medical device manufacturer’s C-level execs’ mansions is going to cure your bursitis, but please proceed, chickens. Indeed, the foxes are offering their security services for free, and what is better than free?
Chris
@patrick II:
As long as they remain a self selecting hierarchy it shouldn’t matter if they’re being outpopulated in the congregations.
Another Halocene Human
I wish I could millions of people to call their senators in a panic when my pay raises were in jeopardy.
shortstop
@Another Halocene Human: Can’t blame you for not wanting to read it, but it’s actually about Social Security.
Paul in KY
@Anya: All bad weather or just selected bad weather?
Trying to determine how cookoo she is.
shortstop
@Paul in KY: Not wanting to speak for Anya, I suspect it’s bad weather that hits states other than her mother-in-law’s own.
Roger Moore
@gbear:
Will it arrive fast enough if you do? I thought a major part of Plan B was that you needed to take it ASAP in order for it to work. If you have sex on Friday night, order it on-line Saturday, and can’t get it until Monday, you’re cutting the 72 hour recommended time to use awfully close. If overnight delivery places decide it’s unprofitable to deliver to your hometown, you may not be able to get it in time if you order at need.
Omnes Omnibus
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Verdi keeps one sane?
Another Halocene Human
@patrick II: Ha, maybe in Catholic churches. Evangelicals relied on converts, but the jesus freak years are over and there are less adult age people who flamed out partying and are looking for an escape. Their big hope was the millennial gen, that’s why they changed everything about ‘church’ to make it appealing to the youth of today. But they didn’t change their bigoted ways and the kids are walking out in droves.
The really freaky fundies are not using birth control, at least the rubes aren’t. The leaders like most authoritarian leaders are do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do model.
Another Halocene Human
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Hehe, nice.
Might improve the economy if you have to spend the condom before the expiration date. No hoarding!
Roger Moore
@low-tech cyclist:
It might also allow grocery and convenience stores to sell it, which is helpful because they’re more likely to be owned by national chains that won’t be as heavily influenced by the local fundies. If we can convince WalMart to stock it, they’ll actually be worth something.
Another Halocene Human
@Anya: Wesleyans are pretty wingy themselves, or they would be if they really followed their religion seriously. Most Wesleyans I know are have a kind of Sufi:Islam relationship with it.
Sort of like Rudolph Steiner. Upper class, cultured, etcet, but under the veneer believing some really, really weird things. The Steiner schools are kinda infamous for being major science denialists and throwing very articulate, thoughtful kids into the world who know NOTHING about natural history. At least, nothing factual. They know a lot of good stories.
Another Halocene Human
@Roger Moore: How about an even better plan, buying Plan B before the emergency?
Which you can do if it’s OTC.
shortstop
@Another Halocene Human: It costs about $50. Plenty of people aren’t going to be buying a $50 drug with an expiration date just in case they need it. Some insurance plans do cover it, but that removes the OTC advantage.
Another Halocene Human
@shortstop: I didn’t know it was that high. I have heard a lot of college girls talking about getting it to be prepared, though.
Petorado
Cue the “it’s a violation of the pharmacist’s religious liberties” chorus. And a musical interlude while they warm up their pipes.
Chris
@Another Halocene Human:
An interesting caveat that deserves mention is that while they do rely on converts, I have yet to meet a single fundiegelical who actually converted from another religion. Ex Catholics, ex Mormons, ex mainline Protestants, ex “cultural Christians” who had a come to Jesus moment – I’ve met plenty. Ex Jews, ex Muslims, ex Buddhists, ex atheists? Not so much.
And yeah, do as I say not as I do has been a hallmark of these churches since forever. The authoritarian culture encourages it; it just feels wrong to presume to question the Wise One.
shortstop
@Another Halocene Human: And good for them for being able to afford to do that — but most Americans cannot.
ETA: I meant to say “good for them for being prepared IF they can afford to pay that” — I wasn’t criticizing them being able to afford it, just pointing out that many financially struggling women can’t.
Roger Moore
@Another Halocene Human:
That is a better plan, but if you’re well enough organized to have Plan B in your medicine cabinet, you’re also probably also well enough organized to have (and use) condoms. A major point of Plan B is that it’s useful for women who have unplanned sex and/or an unexpected failure of a barrier contraceptive, i.e. who weren’t planning on needing it. For every woman who will buy Plan B just on the off chance she’ll need it, there are probably dozens who just aren’t that organized.
And bear in mind that the biggest beneficiaries of this ruling are girls under the age of 18. Most of them probably still live at home, and the ones most in need of Plan B are probably ones whose parents would freak out if they found out they had it. Those girls need access as needed, not with advance planning.
PurpleGirl
@Another Halocene Human: Nope, don’t like your ideas at all. I use dollar coins but they are heavy. If you insist on dollar and two-dollar coins, will you carry all the coins I will need for me. Paper currency weighs less. And a coin smaller than a dime will get lost more easily.
On topic: I want to see the feds actually enforce OTC status for emergency contraception and jail/fine any pharmacist who tries to not carry or provide it.
Anna in PDX
Thanks for the good news Imani. Definitely a win for the good side.
burnspbesq
@shortstop:
Wow. That’s bizarre, even by your standards.
jon
@Petorado: There’s always this version.
Trollhattan
O/T Mah
homeshipping container is mah castle!http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/04/one-man-shot-dead-another-wounded-in-maple-valley/
Another Halocene Human
@Chris: An interesting caveat that deserves mention is that while they do rely on converts, I have yet to meet a single fundiegelical who actually converted from another religion. Ex Catholics, ex Mormons, ex mainline Protestants, ex “cultural Christians” who had a come to Jesus moment – I’ve met plenty. Ex Jews, ex Muslims, ex Buddhists, ex atheists? Not so much.
The whole pitch they have relies on you having been indoctrinated in Christianity as a child. Without that prior conditioning their lame-ass sales pitches wouldn’t work on their own mom.
They also pick on people who have low self esteem and personal or emotional problems, but that’s another issue.
But I must counter your anecdata with some of my own. I had a non-practicing Jewish classmate who started really getting into Christian rock in the 90s and seriously freaking out her parents. (This was during the peak of the evangelical youth movement rebranding, to make xtianity ‘cool’.) There are also some aggressive groups out there like Jews for Jesus. I don’t think it’s high numbers, but some Christians become Jews every year and some Jews become Christians. Plus there’s social pressure or lack thereof. I know a number of people of mixed heritage who ‘back-converted’ to Judaism in a heavily Jewish and very religiously tolerant region, and I know of a lot of children of mixed marriages who are Christians in very Christian-majority and intolerant regions.
As far as Muslims, I think Southern Baptists (which aren’t really evangelical fundamentalist but there’s a lot of cross influence, plus both movements got steeplejacked by hard-right power-hungry conservatives eager to make deals with a certain political faction) have converted a lot of immigrants. Sometimes people convert b/c of who they marry or to fit in. However, I’ve also seen would-be converts get turned off and it ends up being the Southern Baptist spouse who quits and they all end up joining a UU church. As long as we’re on anecdata. :)
Imani Gandy (ABL)
@Alison: Somebody make this happen.
Another Halocene Human
@Roger Moore: That is a better plan, but if you’re well enough organized to have Plan B in your medicine cabinet, you’re also probably also well enough organized to have (and use) condoms. A major point of Plan B is that it’s useful for women who have unplanned sex and/or an unexpected failure of a barrier contraceptive, i.e. who weren’t planning on needing it. For every woman who will buy Plan B just on the off chance she’ll need it, there are probably dozens who just aren’t that organized.
Shouldn’t this allow for Plan B to be distributed at community clinics that serve the young, the sick, and the poor, or even at school from the nurse, or any other setting where their is institutional or charitable support?
And yeah, this is a big win for young people.
opie jeanne
@Trollhattan: Thanks. We seem to have an awful lot of people who are prepared to shoot people far too quickly. I include the cops here in a separate category of trigger-happiness.
Another Halocene Human
@PurpleGirl: Are you carrying rolls of dollars with you?
I’m so mean I go to the bank and get rolls of $1 coins, though haven’t done that much lately. Those iPad payment systems let you add $1 to your credit card charge with a tap of your finger.
Nickels and pennies and dollar bills are costing the mint a lot of money. Bills are also bacteria spreaders. Think about that next time you pull that ginormous wad out of your pocket.
If we went to coins you would spend the coins and keep 5’s on you.
Another Halocene Human
@Trollhattan: Stand your lawn!
peach flavored shampoo
I thought Plan B was a protocol to deal with the looming honey shortage.
kerFuFFler
@Petorado:
If pharmacists are unwilling to sell such merchandise, they should seek other employment. A person who is vegetarian for religious reasons could never insist on keeping their job at a deli counter if they refused to sell cold cuts.
Higgs Boson's Mate
White House press secretary Jay Carney said that President Obama supported Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ 2011 decision to reject a request to allow teenage girls and women to buy Plan B over-the-counter in drugstores and pharmacies.
“He supports that decision today,” Carny said, adding that Obama believes it is a “common-sense approach.”
LINK
Roger Moore
@Another Halocene Human:
Yes, it should, but I wouldn’t count on it working that way in places where it’s needed the most.
kerFuFFler
I agree that girls should be able to get such medication without their parents being involved, but I do worry that some young girls may not get all the appropriate medical counseling that should accompany such a product. Some foolish young things might think this is something safe to use a few times a year and I would like to believe that a grownup makes it clear to a 14 year old what the risks are, and how it should be avoided by proper birth control usage.
quannlace
In supermarkets that sell liquor, if the cashier is under 21 they have to call someone of legal age to ring up the sale. Sometimes even asking the customer to push the relevant button. Have the conscience-stricken pharmacists do that.
Roger Moore
@kerFuFFler:
I bet they could if they lived in an area with a large, militant, politically active vegetarian minority. That’s what this is really about; it’s about their ability to push their religious views on others. They can’t always do it directly, but they keep trying to come up with plausible excuses for why they can do it indirectly.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@kerFuFFler:
I wonder how frequently these pharmacists are acting with either the explicit or at least the implicit backing of store management in enforcing “the local community’s values”.
Patricia Kayden
“Women’s rights groups are celebrating the decision.”
And Republicans are outraged! Outraged I tell you.
RSA
I thought OTC meant that you’d just pick it up in the aisle and have any cashier ring it up? Or would it be like pseudoephedrine?
Phoenix_rising
Can’t tell you all what to do, but having concluded my shared-happy-dance-via-SMS with my friend who has 3, count them 3, teens in her family*…I’m heading to Costco, to ask for it at their p.harma.cy.
If Costco carries it, behind the counter like they do c.ondoms, this frees up we who have children and wish to postpone grandchildren to simply put one in the medicine chest, next to the co..ndoms, and tell the teens it’s there.
*She won’t ever know who used it unless they tell. The deal with the co.ndoms is that they keep a box of 100. Whoever gets to near the end leaves the remaining rubbers where those go, & the empty box lid taped to mom’s shopping list. These people are serious about putting off grandparenthood until it’s reasonable to expect the parents to raise children. We aren’t there yet but intend to be equally serious.
Phoenix_rising
@RSA: Exactly the point of this ruling. Until today Plan B was the same hassle to obtain as a drug used to make meth.
And colds resolve themselves after 5-7 days, although this year’s allergy season has me ready to punch a speed freak in his tooth when I see one. I’ve run out of Sudafed twice and it’s only April.
Roger Moore
@kerFuFFler:
In a pie-in-the-sky way, yes. But in the real world, if a girl needs Plan B and doesn’t have access to proper medical counseling about it, she has much bigger problems. It means that A) she’s having unprotected sex and B) she either doesn’t have a doctor or doesn’t have a doctor she can talk to about her sex life without word getting back to her parents. Plan B without adequate counseling sounds like a good alternative to pregnancy, especially under those circumstances.
wrb
Damn, when I was 13 there was a 12 year-old hot, hot Irish girl I fended off after she’d climbed into my sleeping bag. Meagan Flannagan
I fended her off because it had been so drilled into me that you DO NOT risk getting girls pregnant.
Oh the times we could have had.
FromTheBackOfTheRoom
12/8/2011…
President Obama said today that “as the father of two daughters,” he supports his Health secretary’s decision to block over-the-counter sales of the Plan B “morning after” birth control pill to girls under 17 years of age.
What a fatuous, condescending prick. This is the best that ABL can throw up to try to change the subject from your Savior’s treachery?
Pathetic little jag-offs.
opie_jeanne
@wrb: You were an unusual 13-year-old.
YoohooCthulhu
@Chris:
I’m pretty sure Bobby (Piyush) Jindal was raised as a Hindu and is now a Roman Catholic. Of course, the exception proves the rule, and all that.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
“White House press secretary Jay Carney said that President Obama supported Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ 2011 decision to reject a request to allow teenage girls and women to buy Plan B over-the-counter in drugstores and pharmacies.
“He supports that decision today,” Carney said, adding that Obama believes it is a “common-sense approach.””
With all due respect, what a load of horseshit.
I support democrats because they’re better about using facts and science to support their positions, not gut-reactions. Show me the study that shows that preventing unwanted pregnancies in teenagers is “common-” fucking “sense”.
Fuck this puritan horse.
jon
@opie_jeanne: It’s not that unusual. Fearing the consequences of unprepared-for sexual encounters saved me from grief more than a few times. Sometimes it’s stopped by the boy, likely much more often stopped by the girl, but very often stopped. Kids are horndogs, but they still have operating brains quite a lot of the time. Heavy petting and non-penetrative stuff is fun enough for many, when the risks of other actions are considered.
I remember being a teen, and it’s sometimes wistfully frustrating* when I consider what I could have done in those instances. But I’m mostly glad I kept out of lots of potential trouble.
*It would be pervy in a bad way to fully examine this statement, so I feel a need to assure others that I don’t seek to relive wilder reenactments of my youth with anyone other than similar-aged adults. Forty-year-olds can appreciate a good fingerbang just like anyone else.