Let the Richard Clarke-ing of Susan Wood begin:
A high-ranking Food and Drug Administration official resigned today in protest of the agency's refusal to allow over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception.
Susan Wood, director of FDA's Office of Women's Health, announced her resignation in an e-mail to colleagues at the agency. The e-mail was released by contraception advocates.
The FDA on Friday postponed indefinitely its decision on whether to allow the morning-after pill, called Plan B, to sell without a prescription. The agency said it was safe for adults to use without a doctor's guidance but said young teenagers still needed a prescription and that it couldn't determine how to enforce an age limit — a decision contrary to the advice of its own scientific advisers.
"I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled," wrote Wood, who also was assistant commissioner for women's health. "The recent decision announced by the Commissioner about emergency contraception, which continues to limit women's access to a product that would reduce unintended pregnancies and reduce abortions, is contrary to my core commitment to improving and advancing women's health."
That's not very nice, Dr. Wood. Surely this just means that the Administration loves children so much they want more of them. Babies for everyone, I say, whether they're unloved, neglected, abused, or not.
Plan B opponents, who consider the drug tantamount to abortion and have intensely lobbied the Bush administration to reject over-the-counter sales, praised Crawford's move, saying easier access to emergency contraception may encourage teen sex.
It may very well encourage teen sex, but nearly as much as being a teen does, you knobs.
And tantamount to abortion? I guess, if the definition of "tantamount" has been recently amended by Websters to mean "absolutely unrelated."
The drug has no effect if a woman already is pregnant. It works by blocking ovulation or fertilization, or possibly by interfering with implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus, the medical definition of pregnancy.
Funny, condoms "block fertilization" too. You won't be seeing a ban on Trojan sales anytime soon, though. Making laws restricting male sexuality is apparently un-American. Or maybe I'm missing something.
When I was escorting visitors past the protesters at Planned Parenthood, they'd sometimes ask "are those people here because they're against abortion?"
"Yes," I'd answer, "but some of them are also here because they're against contraception." That was both true and very useful in helping the visitors decide that they didn't want to talk to the protestors.
It's a pathetic world when Bob Dole promotes an erection pill and teens aren't supposed to learn about condoms.
Chastity belts and cod pieces for everyone!
Eh, the distinction between Plan B and condoms is a little more complex than that. A condom prevents an egg from becoming fertilized, where as Plan B prevents a fertilized egg from making camp in a hospitable uterus. Though, that may be a distinction without a difference.
However, the comparsion to abortion is farce. Course, that won't stop illiterate boobs and pro-life zealots from making the comparison anyways, bible in one hand, American flag in the other. But since the Supreme Court has ruled, in no uncertain terms, that access cannot be denied to contraception, pro-lifers are forced to catagorize Plan B as "abortion" in a funky attempt to throw it into more ambiguous areas of legality and public opinion.
See, without the aforementioned hospitable uterus, a fertilized egg has zero chance of viability. Zip. In fact, the woman isn't even technically pregnant yet. Course, that minor detail is lost on all but those murderous bastards who choose to pay attention to irrelevant details like science and biology... or the affected woman, for that matter.
I still find it hilarious (in a sad way) that our government is just fine with the idea of promoting more sex for elderly men for whom nature has already rendered impotent, but virtually outlaws sex for young people for whom nature is sending a very different message.