Federal judge strikes down age limits for morning-after pill

It’s once again up to the courts to inject a little sense into what should be an open-and-shut affair:

A federal judge ruled Friday that the government must make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and younger. In his ruling, he also accused the federal government of “bad faith” in dealing with the requests to make the pill universally available, and said its actions had been politically motivated.

The decision, on a fraught and politically controversial subject, comes after a decade-long fight over who should have access to the pill and under what circumstances. And it counteracts an unprecedented move by the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who in 2011 overruled a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration to make the pill available for all ages without a prescription.

In a decision in a lawsuit filed by advocates, the judge, Edward R. Korman of Federal District Court, ruled that the government’s refusal to lift restrictions on access to the pill was “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.”

Judge Korman ordered the F.D.A. to lift any age and sale restrictions on the pill, Plan B One-Step, and its generic versions, within 30 days.

It still boggles the mind that Secretary Sebelius ruled against the FDA’s previous recommendation at all. But then, maybe I’m just used to living in a country where sense and reason prevail over some (usually religiously-rooted) prudish delusion that all those sweet little youths wouldn’t possibly engage in any naughty playtime together behind their parents’ backs, so why would they need access to birth control, anyway?

Hell, I’m such an unabashed desecrator of “traditional values” that I’d like to see all forms of birth control made available over-the-counter for all ages, and free of cost to boot. I’d even do the same with abortifacients, albeit with an added screening process, even though they aren’t remotely akin to contraception. (Not that the usual ignorant wankers care the slightest about such details.)

(via Joe. My. God.)