NEW YORK CITY ? Government lawyers are fighting a reproductive rights group’s request for copies of White House e-mails and other records about the morning-after contraceptive Plan B.

At a hearing this week in federal court, Magistrate Judge Viktor Pohorelsky set an Aug. 11 deadline for the government to file a formal request to quash the Center for Reproductive Rights’ effort to subpoena the records. He scheduled another hearing for Sept. 29.

The rights group said it wants to subpoena any e-mails, letters and records of conversations about the product exchanged by the White House and the Food and Drug Administration.

The group is seeking to determine whether the administration, for political purposes, tried to steer FDA regulators on how to handle a request to allow over-the-counter sales of the pills. The group supports such sales.

Federal lawyers responded earlier this week with a letter to Pohorelsky, saying they would request a protective order “to quash these requests in their entirety” or strictly limit what the group can learn about the White House role.