Why did Sebelius do it?
UPDATE 12/9, 11:45a: A sixth theory, by Steven Ertelt at LifeNews.com:
“The Obama administration’s track record on protecting Planned Parenthood raises the likelihood that the FDA decision is less about safety and more about making sure that Planned Parenthood retains a substantial share of the Plan B market,” Indiana Right to Life president Mike Fichter told LifeNews…. “The reality is that putting this drug on the shelf at local stores would cost Planned Parenthood millions of dollar in revenue.”
Giving credit where it’s due, Kelsey of Secular Pro-Life also posed this theory early on (first comment here).
Penny Pullen agrees, writing in the upcoming December 12 Life Advocacy Briefing:
“Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Vanessa Cullins said,” according to the National Journal, “the decision could make it harder to fight the United States’s historically high teen birth and abortion rates.” And we are told Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards is seeking a meeting with her organization’s usual close buddy, Mrs. Sebelius.
We’re not sure this angst is genuine. After all, where would young girls likely go for their still-required prescriptions – their own doctors or the “nice folks” at Planned Parenthood, who can then “serve” their continued need for intervention in their sex lives?
And here’s a seventh good theory, by Bill Beckman of the Illinois Right to Life Committee:
I have a theory to explain this unexpected behavior. According to the Associated Press on December 7:
Already, the FDA’s age limits have gone to court. In 2009, a federal judge said the agency had set them initially based on politics, not science, and ordered the agency to reconsider. A hearing already was scheduled for next week to consider whether the FDA should be held in contempt of court for not doing so earlier.
My theory is the possibility that they are trying to gain political points with uninformed conservative voters by showing how reasonable they are, knowing that next week they will get what they really want when the court “forces” them to allow Plan B over-the-counter for everyone of any age
UPDATE 12/8, 8:45a: A fifth plausible theory, by UltraTom on Twitter:
My guess is Obama re-elect team freaked when they polled this. Similar thing occurred in ’96 re: RU-486 approval w/Clinton.
In ’96, then-White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta received “heads up” call from FDA regarding RU-486; Clinton OKed it.
So if the most pro-abortion President in recent history told Sebelius to kibosh it, u can bet paycheck polls were AWFUL.
12/7, 9:03p: The question raging tonight is why did Sebelius make this decision? No one believes she did it for the reason she says she did it, although our side will sure take it.
According to the New York Times, although the Secretary of Health and Human Services has the authority to overrule FDA decisions, this was the first time in history one exercised that authority.
From the Los Angeles Times, the most prevalent theory:
Her official stance, which bears little scrutiny, has led reproductive-rights groups to allege that the decision was politically motivated – perhaps by fear within the Obama administration of being attacked during the presidential campaign for encouraging young girls to have unprotected sex without their parents’ knowledge.
Another theory, posed by Ms.:
Possibly she’s tired of the relentless pressure she faces every day from religious groups and their friends in Congress. Possibly she’s tired of being called “a threat to the health and well-being of our country,” a thug, a Soviet tyrant, a late-term abortion lover, criminally obstructive, gruesomely anti-Catholic and a liar.
A third theory, from the National Journal:
The administration has been in a delicate dance over another touchy issue – the requirement that all medical professionals provide reproductive health care to women.
There has been strong push-back from Catholic medical institutions, which say their workers shouldn’t be forced to provide contraception, or even counsel about it. Roman Catholic teaching forbids the use of artificial birth control. A decision had been expected this week on whether HHS would change some of its wording.
Some activists suspect HHS may have been making a trade-off.
And a fourth theory, by Amanda Marcotte:
So why on earth did this happen? Well, it has to be political, doesn’t it? I think so, yes. The Obama administration has already caught a lot of flack for classifying contraception as “prevention”, and making it free without a co-pay, and so they threw teenage girls and adult women seeking EC out as a sacrificial lamb to “pay” for that. That seems obvious enough to me and apparently to the entire world.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Boo hoo pro-aborts. Can you imagine if this was over the counter? Aside from the moral evil of it, the very fact that it is a high dosage of synthetic hormones is enough reason to keep it from being sold on store shelves. Can you imagine how many teenage girls who would engage in unprotected sex and use Plan B several times a month for years? We would see cancer in young women skyrocket!
I don’t think teens have the wisdom to see the danger in ingesting these huge doses of synthetic hormones.
I just HAVE to throw my theory in here, and yes, it’s just a theory. Someone in the political realm stood to make a killing off of OTC Plan B. When the name of this person comes out, and it will, Sebillius won’t go down for it. In other words, she was simply protecting her career.
Perhaps the Spirits of Contraception Past, Present, and Future appeared to her and showed her the true meaning of Common Sense.
My good friend, and Pro-Life Wisconsin employee, Steve Karlen noted in a discussion with another friend, “One possibility: to make sure retail stores don’t cut into PP’s business.” If it’s sold OTC, less people come into Planned Parenthood. Maybe she’s protecting her best friends from a loss of business…
I took Plan B once, before I knew what it really did to a developing child. It made me SICK. Laying in bed for two days dizzy, nauseated, head pounding…and I was one of the “lucky” ones whose cycle was not affected by the drug.
I agree, Sydney…besides the moral issues, anything that can make someone that sick (when taken according to the directions, as many teens wouldn’t do) should not be available over-the-counter for young girls to use.
Three words: for political cover.
If I was less cynical I would have supplied a two word answer: guilty conscience. But she is an extreme left-wing politician who doesn’t believe there is such a thing as a conscience.
Good News. She is on the defensive. I got my first ever huge flyer from PP today telling me what to tell my senator. They are on the defensive too.
I made the mistake in going and reading some of Marcotte’s garbage. She is so cool throwing out the F word over and over. Emotional IQ of an 8th grader. Buddy, buddy with the teens. She doesn’t know how to lead by example so she just keeps trying to look cool but really looks like the fool she is.
Love that dove pin on Sebelius’ suit. After all, her aura just drips with joy and peace.
Hope I don’t have nightmares of THE LOOK.
A fifth theory: She actually went to confession before Christmas.
Hmm. I wonder who Sebelius was consulting on the phone? Is it too hopeful to have that Manhattan Transfer song in mind?
“Operator! Information: Get me Jesus on the line!”
Yesterday was interesting. I got a call from “Maggie” who wanted to know if I would speak with ABC News reporters (for Diane Sawyer’s program) concerning the FDA’s idea to allow Plan B to be sold on store shelves. This was said to be a followup to a story from LONG ago in which I was interviewed.
I said “yes”, and mentioned that the FDA should be concentrating on the rampant shortage of essential medications, rather than messing around with Plan B. She said I would get a call back to time the interview, ………. That, of course, was not to be, because VOILA!! The story changed radically and they no longer wanted to parade the weird pro-life pharmacist , who does not wish to kill humans at any stage of development.
So. to those who think the lefties are not happy with the results, and their party was squashed, and they’re not happy……. You are CORRECT, and that includes the mainstream media.
I thought that perhaps Sebelius felt she had collected enough barnacles and “bad Karma” in Kansas, with respect to facilitating the abuse of minors, abusing Phil Kline, and “losing” documents. She perhaps no longer wanted that to be highlighted and discussed everywhere she looks. So perhaps she decided to give her agenda a rest for once.
Another alternative idea is that Sebelius is actually recalcitrant, and wanted to allow the FDA decision to fly. Perhaps she was ordered from above to countermand the FDA recommendation, and WAIT TILL AFTER THE ELECTION to allow it.
The lefties are wailing and gnashing their teeth about pre-teens and men not being able to purchase or steal this drug from the shelves. It’s been fun to read their comments on some of the news sites.
From a practical standpoint, the items which are often stolen wind up being locked up in stores. Plan B One-step would be one of these, because a person can easily break into the box, take the pill and leave the empty with it’s little alarm device still inside.
Weird.
Yesterday, I agreed with Megan. Today, I agree with Kathleen Sebelius.
Am I being punk’d??? Maybe I’ll get to meet Ashton!
@ Prax: I wonder if that dove pin is the Holy Spirit who’s about to knock some truth upside her head.
Ah yes, codify the power of quack, moralizing pharmacists to deny women a safe, legal medication. Forget about the undocumented, or others without valid photo ids.
Because EC is a controlled substance…or something.
“I agree, Sydney…besides the moral issues, anything that can make someone that sick (when taken according to the directions, as many teens wouldn’t do) should not be available over-the-counter for young girls to use.”
So a 15-year-old is mature enough to carry a pregnancy to term, yet she can’t be trusted to read the directions on the side of a box? And if we’re talking about what can “make people sick,” why not put restrictions on the sale of OTC painkillers, since they’re often the drug of choice for suicide attempts?
“We would see cancer in young women skyrocket!”
Sounds like a great proposal for a longitudinal study design. Get on that, Sydney. You’ll have to find a way to control for all the girls who just enlisted their older partners, sisters, friends or even parents to buy the drug for them.
Well Courtney, looks like that shiny happy moment of ours has just about ended :)
Megan, hold on. I actually have a teenaged daughter (who, as I have said before, is looking more and more like a supermodel every day), and you wouldn’t believe what hoops I/she have to jump through for her to get a Tylenol at school, much less any kind of medical prescription. If she had an infection (something else we’d want to kill), her antibiotics would have to be dispensed by a pharmacist only AFTER a doctor’s visit and script. I need to be with her and know all about the various chemicals that she is about to ingest. If there weren;t these proper procedures, there is a big possibility for error and misjudgment.
The same goes for a pregnancy scenario. If she gets pregnant, I have failed her. If she walks into a drug store thinking that emergency contraception is her only choice, I have failed her. If she takes Plan B, I have failed her. But I will not fail her and further if she carries the child to term. A pregnancy can be a suprise, but it is not a tragedy you think it was going to be. But as a mother of a teenage girl, to keep me out of the loop, in her ingestion of medicine? Not wise.
I’m going with the “money theory”…
…as Adam stated: ““ make sure retail stores don’t cut into PP’s business.”
In these economic times where PP funding is getting cut left and right..they need to get their hands on every $$ they can get…so they can get Obama re-elected next year and let the good times roll, again….once they have their funding back…HHS will allow Plan B to be OTC after vigorous “re-testing and evaluation” making it “safe” for everyone….
..as the saying goes..”follow the money trail”….
I am willing to bet that Governor Brownback had some say in her decision. He was clear when he supported her as HHS that he enjoyed a good relationship with her and that she was open to his counsel…
She got a Chinese food fortune-cookie telling her to do it.
It’s got to be the polls, as the governor in Blazing Saddles said, “we have to protect our phoney-baloney jobs gentlemen!” The FDA would not be cowed by Planned Parenthood and wouldn’t be able to cut deals over free government-paid contraception, but the higher-ups realize they can’t be the focus of any more controversy because they are already hanging like a thread.
Megan, pregnancy is dealing with NATURAL hormones, the body is MEANT to get pregnant. Infertility is actually a disorder not natural. I am not saying “hooray! A 15 year old is pregnant!” but what I’m saying is Plan B is synthetic UNNATURAL hormones. We know thanks to regular old birth control pills what these hormones can do to the body. A developing girl should not be ingesting these large doses of synthetic hormones. Especially since I talked to a pro-choice girl in college (so she is in her early 20’s) who uses plan B as her basic birth control. She pops them like candy! So yes, there would be teenaged girls who abuse it and it is dangerous and unhealthy.
And Michelle Obama is worried when our kids eat french fries!
Instead of the food deserts she’s so worried about, she ought to be worrying about the morality deserts.
Ok. So…according to Megan’s Guide To Child Care:
Grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner every night = BAD.
Kids ingesting a known carcinagen without their parents’ knowledge = GOOD.
Loving yet unprepared parent not killing their child = BAD.
Killing that same child she pretends to be so concerned with eating grilled cheese in an abortion before he or she can ever even taste a grilled cheese sandwich = GOOD.
OOooh, X. That’s about as plain as it gets.
PS–I love grilled cheese!
Megan, it has nothing to do with responsibility over sex or pregnancy. It has to do with the fact that this drug can have serious side effects with the potential to be abused. In my opinion, something like that shouldn’t be sold over-the-counter, period.
As a comparison, think about a lot of the diet pills out there…they can have dangerous side effects, and so they are restricted to purchase by adults only. Same idea.
1. At some point, public folk wisdom needs to give way to scientific evidence (which is this blog’s manta, anyway!) The FDA is this country’s chief regulatory agency for pharmaceuticals. If an FDA panel can vouch for the efficacy and safety of a drug, then it’s most likely efficacious and safe. Myriad other countries sell OTC EC, meaning that other national regulatory agencies have come to this conclusion.
2. There are dangers to pregnancy far worse for a young girl than consuming a small dose of progestin up to a few times a year (which I doubt will happen, since it’s certainly not cheap–your friend notwithstanding). Pregnant teens are at greater risk for developing HTN, anemia, & poor obstetric outcomes like placenta previa. And their babies have a higher chance of being born low birthweight, paving the way for health risks down the road.
3. ”But I will not fail her and further if she carries the child to term.” Brilliant, because it’s all about you. Whatever happened to respecting your child’s rights?
4. I can’t see how you would consider taking a contraceptive pill would be worse than getting an abortion or carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term. I would be fine with mandating some form of point-of-sale, nonjudgmental counseling on the part of the pharmacist. Perhaps then would teens be able to ask questions and get help if they need any. At this point, they can go to a doctor for an Rx (which they don’t typically do, and even if they do see a physician, parents won’t necessarily find out) or get an older friend to buy the drug for them. Either way, parents aren’t going to find out about teh_sex happening.
5. Xalisae–that diagram is too simplistic. If an unprepared parent is “loving,” then great. But I’ve seen enough horror stories to know that unwanted pregnancies, especially teen pregnancies, can have some horrible outcomes and be a life-ruiner for the mother (yes yes, I know what abortion does, I’ll preempt that inevitable reaction).
Only an evil person can look at an innocent child and see a “life ruiner”.
The morning after pill isn’t the only pill I refuse to dispense. When I opened new pharmacies, I also sent back the diet pill stock. Remember REDUX? It was approved by the FDA for diet use, and yours truly refused to dispense it. Later the FDA took it off the market as the risks outweighed the benefits. Phentermine is another diet pill I refused to dispense. The FDA allowed it on the market although the provider info clearly said that it was useless for weight loss after 12 weeks of use, and the patients generally regained the weight after the drug was discontinued.
The FDA kept albuterol as a prescription drug and allowed epinephrine sale over the counter. (Insane).
Can you say “iron deficiency anemia” ???? Sure you can. Undiagnosed stomach cancer??? Look at all the over-the-counter proton pump inhibitors.
The decision concerning which drugs go over the counter and which do not depends more upon money and lobbying than safety and efficacy.
The FDA has never impressed me as a regulatory body for medication safety, and now it’s worse than ever. In conjunction with other government agencies which have mismanaged regulation of the pharmaceutical industries, the FDA now presides over the largest shortages of critical drugs I have ever seen in my years of practice. We can no longer keep track of the shorted drugs as we have unreliable estimates of when they will ship again. This causes bad decisions to be made regarding the RATIONING of the remaining supplies.
This situation is killing patients.
Faith in the FDA is misplaced. Get a real religion, Megan.
Megan, I did and do respect my child’s rights, and from the very beginning.
First I let her be born.
Thank you Courtnay! Its so sad and ironic to me that Megan is harping on others about ”respecting” a “child’s rights” when she herself didn’t respect her own child’s rights.
Since when does anyone have the “right” to potentially dangerous medication? Megan, are you opposed to prescriptions in general? Do you think that, say, Percocet and Oxycontin should be available OTC?
JOanna, lol. If only.
@ kate im so very sorry that happened to you! how awful;/
pharmer great post!!!
Thanks for the credit– great minds think alike!
Pharmer makes a great point that is so overlooked when pro-aborts are bleeting about how allowing a medical personell to *choose* to offer a service/drug is somehow this horrible tragedy for women that must be corrected through swift legal changes that force everyone to offer abortion/bc/morning after…doctors are allowed to decide whether or not to practice/prescribe/refer for every single other service as they see fit, and pharmacies are allowed to stock/sell/despense (or not) every single other drug as they see fit. Why does the same doctor who can decide not to refer an overweight patient for stomach stapling surgery when they think it inappropriate suddeny lose that descretion when a patient asks about abortion? Why does the same pharmacy who decides not to stock high dose morphine or methadone suddenly not get a choice when it comes to bc?
If someone wants it bad enough, *someone* will carry it. Likewise, if you actually *need* something you jump through whatever hoops necessary to get it. When I was on high dose morphine for chronic pain I had to frequently drive 30+ miles to find a pharmacy to fill the order, every single month for months before I found one willing to order it and keep it in stock for me. But I needed the pills, so I went through the hassel to procure them. On the other hand I’ve been given scripts before that I felt weren’t worth the trouble to drive to an alternate pharmacy when the closest one was out of stock or didn’t carry it.
It’s not rocket science people. Medical personel shouldn’t have *less* choice when it comes to moral issues.
Keep your pants on till you are ready to accept the consequenses of being a parent. Then you won’t ingest high doses of hormones or murder any offspring.