After the Obama administration announced Monday that it would no longer defend age limits on access to emergency contraceptives, NOW applauded the administration’s move and vowed to defeat the radical right’s attack on women’s rights.
NOW President Terry O’Neill release a statement Tuesday, “The National Organization for Women is encouraged by the Obama administration’s promise to federal district court Judge Edward R. Korman that it will withdraw its appeal of his ruling, in which the FDA was ordered to make all forms of emergency contraception available over the counter without age restrictions. With access to this safe and effective product, women of all ages will be able to take immediate action to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex.
Study after study has demonstrated that emergency contraception is an effective and safe way of preventing unwanted pregnancies. After a decade of wrangling over access to this medication, it is time for common sense and science-based medicine to win the day. NOW calls on the Obama administration to comply with Judge Korman’s order without delay and without qualification.
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Buoyed by this victory, NOW activists across the country will continue to work to advance reproductive justice and defeat the radical right forces that play politics with women’s lives.”
President Obama decided to stop defending age limits for emergency contraception like Plan B, in response to a judge’s ruling that Plan B be allowed without a prescription to all women and girls. According to the Washington Post, the administration still opposes allowing girls as young as 12 access to emergency contraception without a prescription, but thought they would lose their appeal and that’s why they dropped their defense of age limits.
In early May, Obama told reporters that it wasn’t his decision to make, but rather it was up to science and so long as it was safe, he supported it. He said, “I think it’s very important that women have control over their health care choices. We want to make sure that they have access to contraception.” In other words, the President insisted that the science prove the drug safe for young girls before approving it.
Republicans have been accusing Obama of “encouraging” “statutory rape” by supporting Plan B (that’s code for how can we kill access to birth control while pretending we’re against abortion):
This makes no sense at all,” Blakeman (GOP strategist) opined to Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Friday. “You have to be 18 years old to buy a pack of cigarettes. And the president is also encouraging criminal behavior because in most jurisdictions in America, engaging in sexual intercourse at 14, 15 years old is statutory rape. So the president is somehow saying, ‘If you engage in that activity — criminal behavior — that’s okay because the government is going to provide you the out for your bad decision making.'”
Contrary to right wing myth, Plan B prevents pregnancy after unprotected sex; it does not abort pregnancy. Plan B is even on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List. It’s contradictory that the pro-life wing of the Republican party doesn’t support a way to decrease abortion via preventing pregnancy with emergency contraception.
There’s only so long you can pretend to not understand the science, especially when it’s explained slowly so that even a rape denier can understand it.
Not even attempts to impeach an innocent President can stop Republicans from their devotion to the war on women (yes, it’s real and it’s proven in their policies, provided in the link). When they aren’t busy running from the budget reconciliation process or refusing to pass a real jobs bill or trying to impeach Obama, Republicans are busy continuing the war on women. But reason and science seems to be prevailing in the case of emergency contraception like Plan B.
Image: Daily Kos
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