A Health and Human Services spokesperson said in an e-mail that the “decision was based on a careful consideration of the science.”
Obama pledged in 2009 to prevent politics from interfering with scientific decisions. The Bush administration had been accused of censoring federal scientists on climate change and other hot-button issues.
But Wednesday’s decision was not the first time the Obama administration has overruled the scientific advice of senior officials. In September, Obama pulled back smog standards proposed by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, saying they would impose too heavy an economic burden.
The administration has long tried to find common ground on issues related to abortion and birth control. The White House hosted meetings aimed at finding areas of agreement among activists, but the effort foundered. In 2010, the administration tried to appease both sides in the debate over sex education and abstinence, launching a campaign supporting programs of both types.
Rules gradually relaxed
The Plan B request followed a series of steps that have gradually made the emergency contraceptive easier to obtain.
The drug contains a higher dose of a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone than is found in many standard birth-control pills. It was approved in 1999, but only for women who obtained a prescription from a doctor. Taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, the pill has been shown to be 89 percent effective at safely preventing pregnancy.
In 2003, Plan B’s maker asked the FDA to allow the contraceptive to be sold without a prescription so women would not have to scramble — often in late-night or weekend panics after sex without protection, a failed condom or a rape — to find both a doctor to write a prescription and an open pharmacy.
The FDA delayed a decision on that request for three years, ignoring recommendations by outside advisers and internal reviewers. It approved nonprescription sales in 2006, but only to women age 18 and older.
In 2009, the agency allowed the sale of Plan B One-Step, a new version that works with one pill instead of the original two, to 17-year-olds without a prescription. But the decision came only after a federal judge ordered the change in response to a lawsuit.
In February, the drug’s maker, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, asked the FDA to drop the remaining restriction, citing two new studies that it said showed that girls as young as 11 could use the product properly and safely.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday on a motion to declare the FDA in contempt of court for failing to review earlier its decision to leave age restrictions in place.
Another morning-after pill, Next Choice, the generic version of the original two-pill Plan B that sells for about $35, is available only by prescription.
Staff writers N.C. Aizenman and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
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