Christian groups ranging from public policy to medical doctors have responded to the FDA’s decision to make Plan B available without a prescription with grave concern and condemnation, opposing the administration’s new policy on the controversial drug.
“It’s a sad day for America. Allowing drugs with such powerful physiological and emotional effects to be sold over the counter to adults without a prescription will have significant consequences, none of them good,” said Dr. Richard Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), in a written statement after the drug’s approval.
The Food and Drug Administration approved on Thursday the non-prescription sale of Plan B, also known as the “morning-after” pill, for use by women 18 and older. Since 1999, the drug was only accessible to women via a doctor’s authorization.
Morning-after pills are basically a more concentrated dose of the same drugs found in many regular birth-control pills. They can prevent unwanted pregnancy up to 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Although the pills prevent ovulation or fertilization of an egg, they may also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting into the uterus. Many pro-family and pro-life groups argue that would be tantamount to abortion.
Although the pills will be sold only from behind the counter of pharmacies, so pharmacists can check photo identification for age, pro-family groups say the restrictive measure will not be effective.
“If the FDA thinks that enacting an age restriction will work, or that the drug company will enforce it when it has already announced it has no intention of enforcing it, then they are living in a dream world,” said Concerned Women for America (CWA) president Wendy Wright.
Many Christian groups have condemn the fact that adult males can buy the drug and give it to minor females without parental knowledge including CWA, ERLC, Focus on the Family, and Christian Medical Association (CMA).
“This decision is a disaster and a danger for girls and their parents,” said Focus on the Family Senior Analyst for Bioethics Carrie Gordon Earll in a released statement. “There are no safeguards, legal or otherwise, to prevent this powerful drug from falling into the hands of teen girls – or, worse, into the hands of men bent on sexually exploiting teen girls by flashing a magic pill as a promise that they won’t have to worry about getting pregnant.”
Land said he is “fearful” that adult men will use Plan B as a “sexual predator’s seduction kit” to lure females under 18 into sexual relationships. The ERLC president further speculates that non-prescription Plan B pills will lead to increased rates of sexual activities in young women outside of marriage that will result in “physical, emotional, and spiritual consequences,” including higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases.
Moreover, several groups have emphasized the risk and harmful side effects that can result from the decreased supervision of the drug’s use.
