Official tells AP: FDA to OK over-the-counter Plan B at age 17

[babsbunny]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-04-22-morning-after-pill_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration, reversing field, will allow 17-year-olds get the 'morning-after' birth control pill without a doctor's prescription, a government health official said Wednesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency will comply with a federal judge's order overturning a Bush administration policy that restricted access. The official was not authorized to speak publicly before the FDA announcement, expected later Wednesday.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Edward Korman ruled in a New York lawsuit that Bush administration appointees let politics, not science, drive their decision to allow over-the-counter access to the pills only for women 18 and older. Korman ordered the agency to let 17-year-olds get the medication, and separately to evaluate whether all age restrictions should be lifted.