Bush Backs Access to "Morning-After" Pill for Minors
Pro-lifers Say President Is Inconsistent

 

WASHINGTON, D.C., AUG. 21, 2006 (Zenit.org).- President George Bush said he supports restricted access to the "morning-after" pill for minors, disturbing some pro-lifers who want the potentially abortion-causing drug banned altogether.

"I believe that Plan B ... ought to require a prescription for minors. That's what I believe," Bush said at a news conference today.

The president's comment was his first direct public statement on the issue that has delayed a Senate confirmation vote on his nominee to head the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Andrew von Eschenbach.

Von Eschenbach, as acting FDA commissioner, has supported non-prescription sales of the morning-after pill for adults. The pill is also known as "emergency contraception."

LifeSite, an online pro-life news service, quoted Father Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, as saying: "President Bush's implied support for the abortion-causing drug Plan B is completely inconsistent with his recent veto of the embryonic stem cell research [ESCR] funding bill. What the president apparently fails to realize is that Plan B kills the same innocent unborn children that the ESCR process does."

Bishops' opposition

In late July, Deirdre McQuade, a spokeswoman for the U.S. bishop's conference, reacted strongly to the FDA announcement moving toward over-the-counter availability of the Plan B pill for women aged 18 and older.
 "Making this powerful, abortifacient drug available without a doctor's oversight could place women and their newly conceived children at risk," McQuade said at the time.

The drug's maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, has been unsuccessful in two attempts to win government approval to sell Plan B more widely without a prescription. The company said it has filed a revised application. The FDA is expected to act soon.

Pro-life groups are opposing the nomination of von Eschenbach to the FDA because he is moving forward on Plan B, as well as allowing the abortion pill RU-486 to remain on the market, the Reuters news service noted.

The U.S. bishops' conference opposes making Plan B available over-the-counter on several grounds, including its abortifacient potential and its implications for informed consent.

In a statement today, Judie Brown, president of American Life League, lamented Bush's comments.

"It is no secret that Plan B can and does take the lives of newly conceived babies in the days immediately following fertilization," said Brown. "The drug's own manufacturer recognizes this fact; so why can't the rest of the pro-life community and our self-professed pro-life president recognize it as well? President Bush is showing inconsistency in his support for life."