The Obama administration decided not to contest a federal judge’s ruling that eliminates age restrictions on the “morning- after” pill known as Plan B.
On December 7, 2011, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius explained why the administration opposed the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation that Plan B be made available without prescription to girls of all ages. “It is common knowledge that there are significant cognitive and behavioral differences between older adolescent girls and the youngest girls of reproductive age,” she said. President Barack Obama agreed, saying, “As the father of two daughters, I think it is important for us to make sure that we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine.”
So what happened to the “common knowledge” and “common sense” arguments? Why didn’t the administration appeal District Judge Edward Korman’s ruling? The issues are the same, both morally and medicinally.
What’s changed, of course, is the timing: the outcome of the presidential election is no longer in doubt.
It’s perverse. The same people promoting a highly eroticized popular culture promote Plan B as a panacea to adolescent sex. And yet nothing works to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases better than restraint. But the elites have divined that restraint ought to apply to smoking (save marijuana), not sexuality.
