Susan F. Wood, former assistant commissioner for women’s health and director of the Office of Women’s Health for the Food and Drug Administration, spoke Friday at the Fluno Center about emergency contraception and compared the roles of government versus science in the decision-making process.
Wood resigned from the FDA on Aug. 31, 2005 after the agency leadership delayed indefinitely the decision to make emergency contraceptive, also know as Plan B, available over the counter.
Molly Carnes, the director of UW Center for Women’s Health Research, said she strongly believes in Wood educating the public about what really happened and felt it necessary for her to speak at UW-Madison.
’I think it’s important to get the story out. Politics is interfering with science and students need to know about it. Students are voters, students are citizens of this country and a lot of students are women. I think at this campus right now it’s 54 percent.’
The FDA approved Plan B in 1999 as a prescription product. In December 2003, the FDA advisory committee voted 23-4 to bring Plan B over the counter. After the application was reviewed, the center director did not approve, questioning whether young teens are capable of using Plan B correctly.
’[Plan B] is more effective when used quickly, and therefore it’s appropriate for it to be available right away within hours rather than days because waiting for a prescription will often take you beyond the window of taking this product,’ Wood said.
The advisory committee applied again, this time for Plan B to be available over the counter for women 17 and older. After a year of waiting, in the summer of 2005, the decision was put into a state of ’rule-making.’ Wood describes this as, ’saying no without saying no. It is putting this decision on a shelf for many years.’
Wood then resigned, maintaining she could no longer work for an agency in which FDA-approved scientific and clinical evidence fully, such as the Plan B research, gets overruled.
’The FDA is a science-based industry. No one knows who made this decision, but it clearly does not promote the health of women and families,’ Wood said. ’I refuse to believe that contraception is controversial. I will grant you that abortion is, but contraception is not. This product acts as the same mechanism as other birth control pills. The only connection Plan B has with abortion is that it can prevent the need for one.’
