Xtreme Promiscuity and Plan B Blogger Muckraking

Kerry Howley | April 25, 2006

The FDA has been hemorrhaging credibility ever since over-the-counter emergency contraception became a moral rather than medical dilemma. (Yesterday, Reason's Ron Bailey hipped us to the best FDA excuse yet for keeping the drug difficult to obtain: "extreme promiscuity," which sounds promising as a potential X game, less so as a reason to keep contraception Rx only.) Diligent Medblogger Ema at Well-Timed Period has found that the National Institutes of Health is also dealing in bad information over the pill, positing severe risks where none exist. It's entirely possible that the NIH and its content provider have accidentally posted a misreading of a legitimate study. But it's probably unwise to take seriously any federal health authority while the FDA is talking about teenage sex cults.