Hispanic group takes issue with Obama administration’s Plan B decision

A Hispanic women’s group wants the Obama administration to lift barriers to emergency contraceptives in the wake of a medical study showing pharmacists in low-income neighborhoods often restrict their sale.
The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health has asked for a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to urge her to reconsider last month’s decision not to make the emergency contraceptive Plan B available to girls under the age of 17. The request comes after a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that more than 1 in 5 pharmacists in low-income neighborhoods refused to sell Plan B to women aged 17 and over, even though they don’t legally require a prescription.
“A disproportionate number of teen pregnancies occur among adolescents from disadvantaged neighborhoods,” the study concludes. In those same neighborhoods, “misinformation regarding access was common.”