anyone surprised to hear this?

[winterbadger]

Amid considerable political maneuvering, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday rejected a controversial plan to sell emergency "morning after" contraceptive pills without a prescription, citing their potential effect on teenage girls.

from Newsday

Comments

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

Birth control pills are prescription... why shouldn't these be?
(or should those be OTC too?)

[kathygnome.livejournal.com]

It takes too long to get an appointment and people are having trouble getting access in time (you have about 72 hours and the effectiveness drops with time). There's plenty of evidence that a prescription isn't medically necessary.

The problem is particularly bad with teenagers because they may have delays because they're unaware of options or don't want to go to the family doctor (many of which won't prescribe anyway and/or will tell their parents).