Clipboard: Obama on bubble gum, batteries, and Plan B

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

In what health advocates criticized as a highly political move, Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overturned a decision by commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration to lift the age restriction on sales of the emergency contraception pill, Plan B.

President Obama was questioned about the decision during a press conference this morning. If the restriction was lifted, young girls would be able to buy the drug “alongside bubble gum or batteries,” and Sebelius was not certain they would understand how it works, he said.

“I think most parents would feel the same way,” he said. “The question is, can we have confidence that they would potentially use Plan B properly?”

It’s worth noting that minors are now able to buy any number of over-the-counter medications that can cause harm -- even death -- if used incorrectly. Here’s some background on the issue from Globe reporters Deborah Kotz and Bobby Caina Calvan:

In dueling press statements, the two Obama administration appointees said they came to opposite conclusions about the safety of making Plan B available to girls under age 17.

The public disagreement was highly unusual, as was Sebelius’s decision to pull rank on the FDA. Women’s health groups were livid, seeing political motivations in the move as the president prepares to seek reelection next year.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said “there is adequate and reasonable, well-supported, and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for nonprescription use for all females of child-bearing potential.’’

But Sebelius, who has authority over the FDA, said in her statement that “the switch from prescription to over the counter for this product requires that we have enough evidence to show that those who use this medicine can understand the label and use the product appropriately’’ and that she does not believe that the manufacturer’s application to make Plan B available over the counter met that standard. She said the studies submitted “did not contain data for all ages for which this product would be available for use.’’

Among the bloggers who lamented the decision, Jonathan Cohn, a writer at The New Republic, said the Obama administration was doing some election year math:

Most likely, the White House didn’t want critics – like, say, the eventual Republican nominee for president – saying that Obama wants 12-year-old girls to have sex. Obama wouldn’t be saying that, of course, but when has that ever mattered? The concern probably isn’t the Christian right so much as culturally conservative swing voters. Or, to put it more bluntly, the worry here wouldn’t be Kansas. It’d be Ohio.

Greg Pfundstein, executive director of the anti-abortion Chiaroscuro Foundation, lauded Sebelius’s decision -- sort of:

If liberals and libertarians want to argue that the radical autonomy of the individual demands unimpeded access to all contraceptive drugs and devices, fine. But the argument that it promotes a public good is a farce. It is bad policy and it will have bad outcomes. Thankfully, Sebelius made the right decision, though probably not for the right reasons.

Julie Rovner of National Public Radio reports that barriers remain for adult woman seeking the contraceptive:

No matter how old you are, “having to go in, show your ID, talk to someone you’ve never met before and say ‘I need Plan B’ can be embarrassing,” says Atsuko Koyama, a pediatrician and emergency room doctor at Boston Medical Center and a board member of the group Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health.

If the age restrictions are removed, Koyama said, “just going to the drug store and buying the Plan B along with your birthday cards and your other sundry items [would] help increase the access and decrease the number of unintended pregnancies.”

Chelsea Conaboy can be reached at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter @cconaboy.