Questions linger for Bush’s FDA nominee

Two Democratic senators dropped long-standing objections to President Bush’s pick to head the Food and Drug Administration Thursday after a bruising fight over emergency contraception, but conservative groups are now calling for a new nominee.

Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Patty Murray of Washington said for months they would block a full Senate vote on the nomination of acting FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach until the agency decided whether to allow wider access to the controversial morning-after pill called Plan B.

The FDA Thursday approved Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.‘s bid to sell the emergency contraceptive without a prescription to women and men 18 and older. The lawmakers said they would keep their promise to lift their objections.

“While we urge the FDA to revisit placing age restrictions on the sale of Plan B, it is real progress that millions of American women will now have increased access to emergency contraception,” the senators said in a statement.

But a growing number of conservative groups, angered by von Eschenbach’s Plan B decision, want someone else to lead the FDA, which has been without a permanent commissioner for most of the Bush administration.

“The FDA’s irresponsible action today takes those rights out of a parent’s hands and gives them to ill-intentioned perpetrators,” said Concerned Women for America’s Wendy Wright, whose group has joined others calling for a new nominee.

A spokesman for Sen. Mike Enzi, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that must approve the nomination, said no decision had been made to schedule a committee vote.

If the committee supports von Eschenbach, the full Senate would then vote for final confirmation.

President Bush earlier this week said he supported von Eschenbach, who approved granting the wider access to the pill.

The bid to sell the drug without a prescription lingered at the agency for more than three years, drawing criticism that the FDA was delaying approval because of political pressure brought by opponents who argue it would lead to greater promiscuity. Some also liken the drug to abortion.

Supporters, however, say wider access to the set of two pills to prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse would curb abortions.