“Morning-after” pill delays

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Here’s a study I haven’t seen that seems important to get out there. Much of the carping by conservatives over infamous the Plan B “morning-after” pill—which still has yet to be approved for over-the-counter sale by the FDA—has focused on the assumption that the pill would make women more likely to engage in “icky” sexual activity. Now we can argue whether or not you think this is a reasonable argument—I certainly don’t—but what would be nice to have are facts.

And now it looks like we do. According to researchers at the University of California, in a study done earlier this year, increased access to the pill does not affect sexual behavior. What the pill does do, of course, is help reduce the risk of unwanted pregnancies. More to the point, the pill helps reduce the number of abortions—which in theory should be exactly what conservatives would like to see. So file that alongside all the other mountains of evidence indicating that the pill is perfectly safe and effective for women.

Unfazed by the scientific method, however, the Bush administration is delaying yet again an FDA confirmation vote on approving the pill. So now the Senate is getting into the matter, as Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray have promised to hold up the nomination of Lester Crawford to FDA commissioner spot until the controversy gets resolved. And hopefully it does soon. By the by, Chris Mooney wrote a piece for Mother Jones about the holdup, and the controversy, surrounding the pill a few months back that’s worth a read.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate