This one isn't a surprise. Barack Obama has a long tradition of ambivalence to women's reproductive rights.
He's been uninterested in women's issues since his days in the Illinois legislature.
Most recently, we have the ruling by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruling the FDA's decision to make the Plan B morning after pill an over the counter medication.
Let's be clear here. This is the first time ever that an HHS Secretary has overruled the FDA.
And Obama is fine with this:
President Obama, who took office pledging to put science ahead of politics, averted a skirmish with conservatives in the nation’s culture wars on Thursday by endorsing his health secretary’s decision to block over-the-counter sales of an after-sex contraceptive pill to girls under age 17.
The administration action inevitably raised questions about whether politics was trump in this instance — especially from disappointed supporters in the scientific and women’s rights communities. Mr. Obama, who had criticized how his predecessor made decisions on issues like contraceptives, sought to dispel that idea in remarks to White House reporters.
“I did not get involved in the process,” he quickly asserted.
Yes, while Barack Obama is getting his faux populist cred on for the upcoming election, he had
nothing to do with this decision.
In the control freak factory that is the Obama administration, the idea that this decision was not thoroughly vetted by both the policy and political wonks is simply not believeable.
In fact, if the head of HHS made this decision without passing it up the chain, it justify their firing.
Mr. Obama said the decision was made by his secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius. On Wednesday, in a rare move, she overruled the Food and Drug Administration, which had recommended that the morning-after pill Plan B One-Step is safe and should be sold without a prescription to people under 17, just as it is now to those who are 17 and older.
“I will say this, 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,” Mr. Obama said.
“And as I understand it, the reason Kathleen made this decision was she could not be confident that a 10-year-old or an 11-year-old going into a drugstore should be able — alongside bubble gum or batteries — be able to buy a medication that potentially, if not used properly, could end up having an adverse effect. And I think most parents would probably feel the same way.”
Bullsh%$.
This is just too dangerous, but acetaminophen, which causes, "
over 56,000 injuries, 2,500 hospitalizations, and an estimated 450 deaths per year," kids can buy that at the drug store.
And of course the whole, "Using his daughters as political human shield thing," is contemptible.
First, he is putting a barrier in that will likely force some girls to ask their rapist's permission, second, even a couple of hour delay to get a prescription makes the drug less effective, and third, it's a couple of orders of magnitude (at least) safer than pregnancy.
Once again, I am glad that I don't live in a swing state, so I don't have to vote for this hypocritical ratf%$#.
Yeah, not primarying him was
such a good thing.
