Plan B Ruling: Fox and Family Research Council Seize Opportunity to Spread Misinformation

Sunday, 21 April 2013 00:00  
By Valerie Tarico, Truthout | News Analysis

The Fox News response to the recent Plan B ruling provides a graphic example of how the channel uses what it calls "fair and balanced" reporting to create false perceptions. A press release issued by the conservative Family Research Council uses misdirection to attain the same goal. Anyone who wants to understand why the United States is so divided need look no farther than these two pieces of political communication disguised as reporting.

In 2011, the FDA said that Plan B and other brands of levonorgestrel emergency contraception like Next Choice should be available over the counter to all who seek it. But in an unprecedented move, then-Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, countermanded their recommendation, requiring that females younger than 17 obtain a prescription. On Friday, April 5, Judge Edward R. Korman called those restrictions "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable" and said that "the secretary's action was politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent." In his ruling making Plan B unrestricted, Korman had a long list of credentialed supporters including the Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics - in other words, all of the most relevant regulatory bodies and professional associations.