Judie Brown, president of American Life League, issued the following statement in response to the Food and Drug Administration’s announcement today that the dangerous Plan B drug regimen will now be made available over the counter for anyone over 18:
American Life League is overwhelmingly disappointed at the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to make Plan B, commonly known as emergency contraception, readily available to women over the age of 18 without a prescription. Even more troubling is the fact that President Bush most likely helped to speed this approval with his recent comments suggesting that prescription sales were only necessary for women under 18. Unfortunately, the responsibility for the deaths of an untold number of preborn children rests on the shoulders of our federal government.
It is no secret that Plan B is a deadly drug that ? even according to its manufacturer ? can act to take the life of newly conceived babies in the days immediately following fertilization. The FDA should not have authorized any use of this risky drug regimen in the first place and it certainly should not have made it readily available over the counter. If the FDA, the president or anyone who supported this decision truly cared about the health and wellbeing of women, they would have demanded that the drug be pulled from the market at once.
Once again, the most vulnerable of our society have lost. Thanks to this reckless decision on Plan B, preborn children and young women are in peril. The federal government is supposed to protect those at risk of losing their lives ? not make that process more expedient. Shame on all those who supported this effort and sacrificed principal for politics.
Release issued: 24 Aug 06