Battle Rages on Campus

By Michael F. Flach
Herald Editor
(From the issue of 7/3/03)

Parents preparing to send their daughters off to one of Virginia’s state-run universities next fall should be aware that their children may be exposed to more than just a liberal arts education.

Pro-lifers across the country are in an uproar these days as more and more state legislatures, including Virginia, are considering laws that permit the distribution of emergency contraceptives to college students.

Over-the-counter distribution of this drug is often permitted by pharmacies, schools and clinics without a doctor's prescription. At James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, for example, the so-called "morning after pill" has been prescribed more than 2,000 times since 1995.

Emergency contraceptives are essentially high doses of birth-control pills — a combination of estrogen and progestin hormones — taken up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse. Depending on where a woman is in her menstrual cycle when she takes the drugs, they can cause a chemical abortion instead of just preventing conception.

Proponents of these state-sponsored bills decry what they say is a current "lack of access" for women to emergency contraception. But pro-lifers point out that anyone can order the pill from a number of Web sites just by answering a few simple questions, and even have it delivered to their local pharmacy within hours.

Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore in early May said that the state’s public colleges and universities can dispense so-called "emergency contraceptives" without informing women that they may also cause the abortion of a newly formed life.

While encouraging university administrators to "provide clear and complete information about prescribed medications," Kilgore said that in order for informed consent to apply "the pregnancy of the woman must first be established."

Since emergency contraceptives can prevent the implantation of an already fertilized egg, a unique human life, they are considered abortifacients. With the Attorney General's ruling, colleges and universities are not required to inform students of this fact. In addition, the ruling would allow doctors to ignore informed consent laws by simply not doing a pregnancy test, to verify a pregnancy.

Kilgore’s ruling came in response to a letter sent by Delegate Robert Marshall to Virginia state-funded colleges concerning the distribution of "morning-after" pills on their campuses.

According to a recent article in Time magazine, Marshall and Mark Obenshain, a JMU trustee and pro-life candidate for the state senate, introduced a measure to stop JMU’s center from providing the pills. But Krissy Schnebel, a 19-year-old sophomore, started a petition drive among fellow students asking the university board to reverse its decision to stop dispensing the drug.

Schnebel collected 2,714 signatures, more than double the required number. JMU’s trustees have yet to decide whether they will reconsider the issue at their next meeting.

One pro-life group said that Kilgore’s opinion "uses vague and inaccurate language, violates the clear intent of Virginia’s informed consent law, infringes on the rights of parents over underage children, encourages reckless and promiscuous behavior and endangers the lives and health of young women prescribed the drugs."

The Diocesan Office for Family Life is asking concerned citizens to let Kilgore know how you feel about this drug. Remind him that life begins at fertilization and that all pre-born babies, even in the first days of pregnancy, deserve the protection of Virginia's informed consent laws.

"I applaud Delegate Marshall for taking the initiative of bringing this behavior to the attention of the presidents of the state public universities," said Bob Laird, director of the Office for Family Life. "I am disappointed that Attorney General Kilgore does not know when life begins and hope that he will achieve the wisdom to correctly apply the law to the morning after birth control pills."

Write to: Office of the Attorney General, 900 East Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219; or call 804/786-2071 or fax 804/786-1991. His e-mail address is: mail@oag.state.va.us.

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