LIFE DIGEST: Abortion-causing drug sold in vending machine
- Feb 15, 2012 -
One American university is selling from a vending machine a contraceptive drug that can cause an abortion.
Shippensburg University, a state school located in south central Pennsylvania, stocks a vending machine in its health center with Plan B One-step, known as the “morning-after” pill or “emergency contraception.” While the method works to restrict ovulation or prevent fertilization, it also has a back-up mechanism that can operate after fertilization. It can block implantation of a tiny embryo in the uterine wall, thereby causing an abortion.
Also in this edition: Ginsburg: Court went ‘too far too fast’ on abortion and Virginia House OKs ultrasound, ‘personhood’ bills.
While other universities sell the “morning-after” pill, Shippensburg’s vending machine is reportedly the only one in the country to stock the drug, according to the Associated Press. It has been sold by means of the vending machine for two years and costs $25. Between 350 to 400 doses are purchased each year, AP reported Feb. 10.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, decried the availability of the drug in a vending machine.
“Pretty clearly, not only have universities become so immune to abortive medication that they allow the sale of it on their campuses, but they do so with a machine located in a back room of their health center – without the bat of an eye and with the expectation that those watching you cram crumpled bills into a Coke machine in order to kill your child wouldn’t think twice about it, either,” Hawkins said, according to LifeNews.com.
“Shippensburg University’s decision to sell Plan B – an emergency contraception that results in the murder of pre-born children and one that touts a slew of harmful effects on women – in a vending machine on campus is reflective of how dangerous the disease of abortion has become.”
Under federal regulations, women 17 and older do not need a prescription to buy the “morning-after” pill, but they must request the drug from pharmacists, who stock it behind their counters. Girls 16 and under must have prescriptions to buy the drug.
University officials defended providing the drug in the vending machine. None of Shippensburg’s students are under 17, and no public funds or student fees are used to pay for the drug, a school official said. Other items stocked in the machine are condoms, pregnancy tests and cough drops, according to AP.
Ginsburg: Court went ‘too far too fast’ on abortion
The Roe v. Wade opinion legalizing abortion nationwide went “too far too fast,” Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said recently.
Of the 1973 ruling that struck down all state abortion restrictions, Ginsburg said Feb. 10, “It’s not that the judgment was wrong, but it moved too far too fast.”
Some states already had liberalized their laws against abortion, and the justices at that time could have postponed reviewing any decision similar to that of Roe while the situation in the states evolved, she said, according to AP. Or the high court could have invalidated the Texas ban in the Roe case without supporting a right to privacy that legalized abortion throughout the country, she said.
“The court made a decision that made every abortion law in the country invalid, even the most liberal,” Ginsburg said, AP reported. “We’ll never know whether I’m right or wrong . . . things might have turned out differently if the court had been more restrained.”
Ginsburg, who supports abortion rights, made her comments at a symposium at New York’s Columbia Law School. The event celebrated the 40th anniversary of her addition to the faculty as its first tenure-track female professor.
Virginia House OKs ultrasound, ‘personhood’ bills
The Virginia House of Delegates passed Feb. 14 two pro-life measures.
The House voted 63-36 for a bill requiring women to have ultrasounds before undergoing abortions, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The Senate approved a similar piece of legislation Feb. 1. Gov. Bob McDonnell has said he would sign such a measure into law.
Delegates also approved a bill establishing “personhood” as beginning at conception. The vote was 66-32.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. Our free, downloadable Impact resource is also available online. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
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