Age limit lowered to 17 for Plan B morning-after pill

WASHINGTON — Seventeen-year-olds soon will be allowed to buy morning-after contraceptive pills without a prescription after federal drug regulators complied with a judge's order and lowered the age limit by a year.

The decision Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration, which overturns one of the most controversial health rulings of the Bush administration, was scorned by anti-abortion advocates and hailed by abortion-rights proponents.

The long-running controversy involving Plan B has had more of a political impact than a public-health one. The drug consists of two pills that can prevent conception if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, and is not related to RU-486, the abortion pill. Since 2006, when Plan B became widely available to women 18 and older without a prescription, it has had no measurable effect on the nation's abortion or teen-pregnancy rates.

Like their older counterparts, 17-year-old girls now will be able to go to almost any pharmacy, clinic or hospital and, after showing proof of age, buy Plan B without a prescription. Men 17 and older also may buy Plan B for a partner.

The agency's decision came after U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in New York ruled in March that the agency's decision to limit easy access to Plan B to those 18 and older was driven by politics, not science. He gave the FDA 30 days to lower the age limit to 17.

In a brief statement, the agency said it would not appeal Korman's order.

Contraception advocates hailed the news.

"Today's announcement by the FDA is a strong statement to American women that their health comes before politics," said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a group that provides reproductive services, including abortions. "The U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy among the most developed countries in the world."

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative advocacy organization, said the agency's decision was driven by politics and a mistaken judicial decision. "Parents should be furious at the FDA's complete disregard for parental rights and the safety of minors," Wright said.

Contraception advocates have pushed for easy access to Plan B for girls and women of all ages because the longer a woman delays in taking it after unprotected sex, the more likely she will become pregnant. Eliminating doctors from the transactions, it was hoped, would lead to fewer pregnancies.

Advocates once predicted that widespread and easy access to emergency contraceptives would cut the number of induced abortions in half and slash teen birthrates.

But young people in the United States have so much unprotected sex — one in three girls younger than 20 will get pregnant, with 80 percent of the pregnancies unplanned — that Plan B has been little more than a sandbag against a flood. Even women who are given the medicine free often fail to take it after having unprotected sex.

"This is not going to be a cheap cure to the unintended pregnancy epidemic in this country," said James Trussell, director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. "It's very depressing."

But while the promise of emergency contraceptives has been largely unrealized, so have predictions of disaster. Anti-abortion advocates said easier access to Plan B would lead women to have more unprotected sex and more abortions. There is no evidence of either.

The debate surrounding the medicine is seen as having tarnished the FDA, and the Obama administration's low-key change of the age limit was an effort to avoid a cultural controversy.

In 2003, a panel of outside advisers voted 23-4 to recommend over-the-counter sales without age restrictions. But top FDA officials told subordinates that no approval could be issued at the time and that the decision would be made at a higher level. That's considered highly unusual, since the FDA usually has the last word on drug decisions.

Staff members said in depositions that they were convinced that no amount of scientific evidence would have persuaded Bush administration appointees to approve such a decision. The administration delayed approving the pills for three years, but only for women aged 18 and older — and only after members of Congress threatened to block the confirmation of the next FDA commissioner.