Today is the deadline for the U.S. Federal Drug and Food Administration to appeal a ruling by a district judge which would take away age limits for emergency contraception pills, according to CTV.com.
The FDA asked for a stay of the ruling last week but U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn declined Friday.
"In my view, the defendants' appeal is frivolous and taken for the purposes of delay," Korman wrote in the decision.
However, Korman did give the agency till May 13 to issue an appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan. This halted—at least for a couple days—the court order that was supposed to take effect the same day as Korman’s ruling.
According to Korman, politics is the driving force behind Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius’ attempts to keep the age restrictions in place.
He described Sellebus’ actions as “politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent." He also pointed out the lack of substantial evidence to keep the restrictions.
Lawyers from the Justice Department want a stay of the ruling while the government looks for an appeal on the court order.
If the government does not succeed the ruling could change the course of history. Girls of all ages would be able to walk into a pharmacy and walk out with levonorgestrel-based emergency contraception—also known as the “morning after pill” and “Plan B.”
The FDA lowered the age restriction for the pill earlier this month, which was previously at 17-years old, to 15-years old in what the agency said was a decision unrelated to the court order.
Referencing the change in age limit, Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said it "does nothing to address the significant barriers that far too many women of all ages will still find if they arrive at the drugstore without identification or after the pharmacy gates have been closed for the night or weekend."
