Really? Girls below the age of 16 can now obtain the morning-after pill without a prescription or parental involvement? So says Federal Court Judge Edward Korman.
The Brooklyn jurist overturned the Food and Drug Administration’s 2011 decision that limited the over-the-counter pills to women younger than 17. Stating that the original bill was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable,” he lifted the ban, effectively making the “emergency-pill” available to all ages.
What is arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable about limiting the age to over 18 to buy it?
How much more arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable is it to limit teens younger than 18 to be restricted from buying cough medicine, or adults younger than 21 from drinking and buying alcoholic beverages or for teens younger than 18 to need parental consent to get married, or, for that matter, to join the military.
The judge explained his ruling in a 59-page decision, claiming that the original bill was driven by the political machinations of the Bush and Obama administration, and not by scientific evidence.
Korman further lambasted United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius for overruling the FDA, which had approved Plan B for all ages without a prescription. Sebelius had argued that 11-year-old girls might not be able to understand how to use the drug properly.
The judge called Sebelius’ explanation “politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent.”
Cow patties! Knowing what’s right and wrong isn’t about scientific evidence, political machinations, or 11-year-olds understanding instructions. It’s about what an 11-year-old should and should not be doing without a parent’s permission.
There is no way a tween or teen can make a life-altering decision without a parent’s advice. They simply don’t have the experience, wisdom, or ability. We don’t allow teens and young teens to drop out of school because we — the adults — know that staying in school is the right decision, but this judge apparently wants parents to let their tweens and teens access to morning-after pills? I’m a little confused as to the judge’s thinking.
For Korman to deem it allowable for any child to take any medication without parental and medical consent is just plain insane.
If we don’t allow underage tweens and teens to drive a car, drink a beer, take a swig of cough medicine, or get married, we really shouldn’t be allowing them to take any drug without our consent. Aside from the moral issue, what about the health issue?
How does this judge or any other legislator know what the effects of this pill has on a young teen? The decision to take this medication should be left up to a physician and the parents, not up to the teen, who shouldn’t be having sex to begin with!
Not for Nuthin™, but just like the government shouldn’t be involved in decisions of the heart or religion, judges shouldn’t be in the business of making medical decisions.
Follow me on Twitter @JDelBuono.
Joanna DelBuono writes about national issues every Wednesday on BrooklynDaily.com. E-mail her at jdelbuono@cnglocal.com.
