Originally published September 27 2005
FDA stalling of OTC morning after pill causes women's health chief to resign
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Food and Drug Administration's Assistant Commissioner, Susan Wood, who is in charge of women's health for the regulatory body, resigned Wednesday, Aug. 31 in protest of the agency indefinitely postponing the decision to allow over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception; a move that has sparked a congressional hearing into the FDA's motivations.
"There's fairly widespread concern about FDA's credibility" among agency veterans as a result, Wood told The Associated Press hours after submitting her resignation Wednesday.
"I have spent the last 15 years working to ensure that science informs good health-policy decisions," Wood, director of FDA's Office of Women's Health, wrote in an e-mail about her departure to agency colleagues.
"I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended by the professional staff here, has been overruled."
"It is time for the FDA to stop playing games with the health and well-being of millions of American women," said a statement by Sens.
FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford is out of town, but the agency issued a statement Wednesday saying Wood had helped make "significant strides" in advancing women's health and that "her decision to leave is unfortunate as we work toward solving the complex policy and regulatory issues related to Plan B."
The morning-after pill is a high dose of regular birth control that, taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent.
Instead, Crawford announced Friday that while over-the-counter sales to women 17 and older would be safe, younger teens would still need a prescription because of concern about whether they could use the drug properly --- and that the agency didn't how know how to enforce an age limit.
FDA scientists have publicly called the pill safe, used by millions of women with few side effects, and in December 2003 the agency's scientific advisers overwhelmingly backed over-the-counter sales for all ages.
When FDA first raised the teen concern last year, maker Barr Pharmaceuticals proposed the age limit, saying it could be enforced just like drugstores enforce age limits on cigarette sales.
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