The morning-after pill and teens

“If Bush waged a war on science," the war-crime tribunal just spoke, said Cristina Page in The Huffington Post. A U.S. District Court in New York on Tuesday ruled that the Bush administration politicized the once-respected Food and Drug Administration by overruling staff recommendations, and prohibiting girls under 17 from receiving the Plan B morning-after contraception pill—one of the most effective tools for preventing unwanted pregnancies.

That may be the personal opinion of Judge Edward Korman, who made the ruling, said Tony Perkins in a Family Research Council blog, but he’s no physician. And legions of experts at the FDA disagree with him—not to mention parents, who might lose the ability to prevent their daughters from taking this risky drug. “The bottom line is that Korman's ruling endangers girls' health and parents' rights.”

This is certainly a controversial decision, said Rachel Emma Silverman in The Wall Street Journal, but at least it’s getting people talking. The sex talk is one of the toughest ones for parents to have with their kids. Current events can serve as a springboard, and the FDA ruling is a great “teachable moment.”

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