The FDA is going ahead with a “compromise” on over-the-counter sale of the morning-after birth control pill to women 18 and over. Women younger than 18 will still need a doctor’s note to obtain the pill from pharmacies. (Woe betide the woman seeking to avoid pregnancy whose pharmacist is from the church of if-you-have-sex-you-must-pay.) Pharmacists must sell the drug, however, and will check IDs.
Sen. Hillary Clinton had previously decried the FDA’s announcement that it was studying this compromise, which continues to make the medication hard to obtain by women of the age of consent, and vowed to continue to block confirmation of the Bush administration nominee to head the FD until she had a yes or no answer on sale of the drug. No word yet if she’s holding firm now that the FDA has agreed to some over-the-counter distribution. The drugmaker had wanted over-the-counter sales to women 16 and older.