From Salon.com, and making the rounds on all the news sites (passed along by Jeremy - thanks!):
Obama says no to Plan B for teens
Once again, fear of teen sex trumps public health as a Cabinet secretary overrules the FDA
Why does Obama want your innocent little girl to have sex without you knowing?
The fear of an attack ad along those lines must have motivated the Obama administration’s decision today to overrule the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation to allow emergency contraception to be sold on store shelves, and made available without a prescription to those under 17. There’s certainly no explanation based in science.
In an extraordinary statement, FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg said she agreed with an internal study that “there is adequate and reasonable, well-supported and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for non-prescription use for all females of child-bearing potential.” But, she said, the secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, disagreed. Sebelius issued her own wishy-washy statement,claiming there wasn’t enough data on the drug’s effects on adolescents.
But there is no honest public-health reason to force teenage girls to see a doctor before accessing emergency contraception. There are only political ones. (The morning-after pill will still be available at pharmacies without a prescription for women over 17.)
Read the rest of the article here.