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Editorial

Sell Plan B over the counter, despite understandable qualms

  January 16, 2012

Health care policy should be subject to science, not politics. But it’s hard not to see politics behind Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s decision to restrict girls’ access to the emergency contraceptive known as Plan B. The thought of 11-year-olds having sex is enough to make anyone flinch; making the drug more readily available doesn’t reduce the need for comprehensive sex education. But making policy on the grounds of one extreme scenario ignores the good that broader availability would bring about.

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