New Online Clock Tracks Bush Administration's Inaction on "Morning-After" Pill

(Washington, DC) – NARAL Pro-Choice America launched a "timer" clock to keep track of the number of days the Bush Administration's Food and Drug Administration has refused to act on a petition to give women over-the-counter access to the Plan B "morning-after" pill.

The innovative web visual comes on the heels of a report from the Government Accountability Office that shows political interference has played a role in the agency's delay on this decision.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the timer began today – more than 1,700 days since NARAL Pro-Choice America and more than 70 organizations, including the American Nurses Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, and the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, filed a citizen's petition to request that the FDA switch certain emergency contraceptive drug products from prescription to over-the-counter status.

"The clock is ticking on women's patience in this country. The new GAO report's revelations of political interference are the latest example of the Bush administration's FDA putting politics before women's health," Keenan said. "No valid medical or public health argument justifies imposing restrictions on women's access to the Plan B 'morning-after' pill, but this independent investigative report shows that high-level Bush political appointees are blocking women's access to this birth control to satisfy his far right base."

Keenan said the organization's web-based timer includes a political action. Browsers may send a message to their member of Congress asking him or her to sponsor "Plan B for Plan B Act," legislation introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).

Maloney's bill, which was introduced earlier this month, would give the FDA 30 days to approve or deny the application for the Plan B emergency contraceptive. If the agency continues to drag its feet, the application is assumed to be approved.

"When the American public reads the report from GAO, they are going to ask Congress to do something about it," Keenan said. "Thanks to Rep. Maloney's bill, Congress has the opportunity to force a federal agency to do its job – and make a decision on whether to allow women increased access to the 'morning-after' pill. The 'morning-after' pill represents a common-sense, common ground approach to preventing unintended pregnancies and reducing the need for abortion. It shouldn't take an act of Congress to force the FDA to put women's health before politics, but it's come to that now."

NARAL Pro-Choice America is a national leader in this effort and first urged the FDA to give women better access to the morning-after pill almost five years ago. NARAL Pro-Choice America directed a recent campaign that channeled more than 26,000 messages from activists in all 50 states to the FDA. 

Contact:
Ted Miller, 202.973.3032