Morning After Pill Will Do More Harm Than Good, Doesn’t Lessen Abortions

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 3, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Morning After Pill Will Do More Harm Than Good, Doesn’t Lessen Abortions Email this article
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by Wendy Wright
August 3, 2006

LifeNews.com Note: Wendy Wright is the president of Concerned Women for America.

Abortion advocates claim that making the "morning-after pill" available over the counter would be safe and reduce pregnancies and abortions. The real-world experience shows just the opposite.

The morning-after pill is a high dose of the birth control pill, which requires a prescription to guard against serious complications such as blood clots.

The Food and Drug Administration has never allowed a nonprescription status for a high-dose drug when a low dose of the same drug needs a prescription.

The FDA first declined over-the-counter status, concerned it would harm adolescents. Now the FDA is negotiating a scheme for any "woman over 18" to buy it without a prescription.

Any adult could buy the drug and — even in the store — give it to a 13-year-old (without the parent’s knowledge).

Neither FDA nor Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., the drug maker, has the ability to punish people who sell or give the drug to a minor.

Countries that made the morning-after pill nonprescription show no drop in pregnancies or abortions. But sexually transmitted diseases skyrocketed.

Scotland made the morning-after pill nonprescription in 1999 and in 2005 reported its highest number of abortions since abortion was decriminalized in 1967.

In England, abortions increased from 176,000 in 2002 to 185,400 in 2004. In four years, chlamydia went up 76 percent. Gonorrhea went up 55 percent. Syphilis went up 54 percent. Genital warts went up 20 percent.

The FDA put limits on another reproductive drug, the abortion pill RU-486, that were promptly ignored by the drug owner.

Even after the deaths of numerous women, the FDA has not enforced its restrictions. Barr Pharmaceuticals has no incentive to reduce its sales and no means to penalize violators.

Easy access to the morning-after pill would be harmful to women and girls.