Plan B: What Will the Religious Nuts Do Now?

The decision by the FDA to make Plan B available without a prescription is good news. What I wonder, however, is what effect this is going to have on the problem of pharmacists refusing to dispense the medication for religious reasons.

Not much, I think.

Basically, while women over 18 will no longer need a prescription to get emergency contraception, the FDA's new rule requires the drug to be sold from behind the counter. Which means that religious extremists working in pharmacies will still be able to deny women access to the medication. The FDA says the requirement is intended to ensure the age limit is adhered to, but they had to be aware of what they were doing.

Furthermore, with the new rule in effect, women won't even have the force of a prescription to back up their right to the drug. Saying pharmacists were denying women medical treatment a doctor had prescribed for them carried a lot of weight. Now, I can foresee some religious extremists, inside and outside of pharmacies, using the fact that Plan B is sold without a prescription to downplay the urgency of women who are seeking to buy it. "It's not even a prescription drug," they'll say, "What's the problem if women have to go somewhere else to get it."

Which doesn't mean things should go back to the way they were. Oh, no. But it does mean women probably still have a fight on their hands to get full, unimpeded access to emergency birth control.

A battle's been won. The war's not even close to being over.