Debating the morning after

last updated 8 January 2015

Washington, D.C.

Federal regulators this week rejected a request to sell a morning-after birth-control pill without a prescription. The drug, Plan B, can prevent ovulation or keep a fertilized egg from implanting if taken within 72 hours of sex. The Food and Drug Administration said drug maker Barr Pharmaceuticals had failed to prove girls could safely use Plan B without a doctor’s help. Conservative activist Wendy Wright praised the ruling, saying the drug was too potent to be sold “next to candy bars and toothpaste.” But birth-control advocate Kirsten Moore said the decision denied women “a safe, proven second chance to prevent pregnancy.”