Opinion

June 11, 2013 (frc.org) – If there's one thing the Obama administration has mastered, it's walking out on their responsibilities in court. Yesterday, the Justice Department sent its Plan B appeal to the same dust heap as its DOMA defense, telling reporters that it would give up its legal campaign after a couple of recent setbacks. The administration's policy, which for two years had been the only thing standing between little girls and a powerful birth control drug, is now a thing of the past, as Health and Human Services (HHS) officially bows out of the battle so many parents willed it to keep fighting. The sudden surrender by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius means that the controversial and potent morning-after pill will be available to anyone — of any age — without a prescription.

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Before Monday, the administration took a lot of heat for pitting itself against the President's closest allies — radical feminists and abortion groups who object to even the slightest restrictions on “contraception.” In a letter to U.S. District Judge Edward Korman, who authored the scathing ruling against Sebelius's policy, the government's attorneys promised to step aside and allow unlimited sales. As soon as the manufacturers submit a new drug application, the FDA promises to fast-track the pills to drugstore shelves.

Initially, the DOJ had asked Korman to suspend his ruling until an appeals court could weigh in — which it did last week. And although the judges' decision was an obstacle, there were plenty of legal options to overcome it. Instead, the President dropped the case — along with the facade of concern.

Judge Korman, like President Obama, has two children. Yet neither man seems overly concerned that the drug they're both endorsing has never been tested on pre-teen and adolescent girls. Judge Korman called HHS's policy “scientifically unjustified,” when in fact, the only thing that's scientifically unjustified is the effect of these high doses of hormones on young girls. The FDA hasn't conducted a single study on Plan B's risks to girls under 17 — but as far as liberals are concerned, nothing should hinder access to anything related to sex, including personal safety.

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Ironically, the Left has created every possible barrier to prevent children from being exposed to morality and religion. Yet at the same time, these liberals are building easy on-ramps to a highway of promiscuity, where the toll is hidden until it's too late to pull off. That's why parents are so vital to the decision-making process. Without adult supervision, there's absolutely no evidence that children will use the drugs appropriately — and even if they do, Plan B still offers zero protection against sexually transmitted diseases (which, unlike unplanned pregnancies, can be fatal).

Now, thanks to the quitters on this case, moms and dads “are owed no legal say over whether very young daughters can pop a hormonal contraceptive with a can of Coke and a bag of Skittles the day after they have sex,” write the editors of the New York Daily News. “A girl of braces-wearing age should be limited to freedom of choice over acne medications, not given the power to avert a feared pregnancy without so much as a chat with a caring adult.”

Yet again, the President is putting politics ahead of the health and safety of young girls, which will ultimately do more to exacerbate the problems of teen sex and disease than solve them. Unfortunately, those trends will only change when leaders recognize that involving parents in the decision-making process may be the best birth control of all.
 

Reprinted with permission of www.frc.org