Women's health chief quits FDA
The head of the Food and Drug Administration's
women's health office resigned Wednesday in a widening protest over delays in
deciding whether the "morning-after" contraceptive can be sold without a
prescription.
Susan F. Wood, a biologist and veteran of 15 years in professional positions on Capitol Hill and in two administrations, took the unusual step of publicly announcing her resignation in an e-mail to friends and colleagues that was distributed to the media by a policy group that favors reproductive choice.
"I can no longer serve . . . when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been overruled," wrote Wood, 46, who has been at the agency nearly five years and held the title of assistant commissioner.
It’s almost forty-four years since the arrest of birth control providers -- which led to the Supreme Court decision legalizing contraception in this land. The amalgamation of religious fanatics and political opportunists is dedicated to turning back the clock.
Plan B, made by Barr Laboratories, won FDA approval as a prescription drug in 1999. Its path to over-the-counter designation has been convoluted.
Last year, the FDA overruled an advisory panel recommendation and decided to keep Plan B as a prescription drug. But the agency invited Barr to re-apply after submitting additional data, and the company asked that the drug be made freely available to women 16 and older while younger girls would need a prescription. The FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research has determined that the product can be safely sold without a prescription to women 17 and older.
Most Americans are still ignorant of the whole agenda of the fundamentalist Phalange. The plan to take our society back to the Dark Ages ranges from “creationism” to outlawing contraceptive products. They would have superstition overrule science at every turn.
Posted: Thu - September 1, 2005 at 06:49 AM