With new bosses about to take over at the US Food and Drug Administration, a New York judge has ordered the federal drug regulator to make the morning after pill available to 17-year-olds and to review whether to make the emergency contraceptive available to all ages without a doctor’s order. Judge Edward R Korman’s 52-page decision is the outcome of a lawsuit by the Centre for Reproductive Rights against the FDA’s 2006 decision to deny girls younger than 18 access to the Plan B pill without a prescription.

The judge agrees with the lawsuit that the FDA’s handling of the issue was “arbitrary” and influenced by “political and ideological” considerations imposed by the Bush administration. By implication, the Centre for Reproductive Rights does not have any “ideological” bias and it is claiming to have “science” on its side in promoting use of the jumbo dose of hormones (in one brand of… click here to read whole article and make comments