Free Republic

Someone should tell President Obama there’s no such thing as a free abortion pill. The White House is trying to douse a political wildfire sparked by an Obamacare mandate forcing religiously affiliated institutions to provide a full range of contraception measures for employees - including pills that induce abortions. Catholic and other religious leaders with principled objections cried foul, citing promises that they and their affiliates would be covered by a “conscience waiver” for any provisions of the law that created this kind of moral dilemma. On Friday Mr. Obama proposed a new rule whereby the onus would be on...

The 2010 Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) gives presidential appointees at least 40 regulatory powers that have the force of law. Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, recently exercised one of these powers by mandating that “most new and renewed health plans” are required to cover without cost sharing “all FDA-approved forms of contraception” by August 1st of this year. This mandate exempts “certain religious organizations” but not others “who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan.” This means that faith-based universities, hospitals, and charities are not exempt from...

... LBJ high school teacher and coach is charged with delivering a dangerous drug to a student after a parent accused her of giving the morning after pill to the student. Tracy Steinberg, 32, resigned after the allegation surfaced on January 26.... When the student became ill after taking the pills, she told her mother about the situation and the mother contacted AISD police, who began an investigation.

Students at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania can get the "morning-after" pill by sliding $25 into a vending machine, an idea that has drawn the attention of federal regulators and raised questions about how accessible emergency contraception should be. The machine has been in place for about two years, and its existence wasn't widely known until recently. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is contacting state officials and the university to gather facts, agency spokeswoman Stephanie Yao said Tuesday. Consumers have long been able to insert a few coins for the likes of aspirin, ibuprofen, antacids and other common over-the-counter remedies....

The federal government is grappling with the explosive question of whether to let anyone of any age buy the controversial morning-after pill Plan B directly off drugstore and supermarket shelves without a prescription. The Food and Drug Administration has until Wednesday to respond to a request from the drug’s manufacturer to make the pill as easy to get as toilet paper and toothpaste, a move pushed by some doctors, health advocates, family-planning activists, members of Congress and others to help women prevent unwanted pregnancies.

The Washington Post reports that, under President Obama and his Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Food and Drug Administration is considering letting “anyone of any age buy the controversial morning-after pill Plan B directly off drugstore and supermarket shelves without a prescription

We previously reported that on August 13th the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new prescription abortion drug called "ella" allowing Watson Pharmaceuticals to market this drug in the U.S. as an "emergency contraceptive" (EC). While proponents of ella claim that it is more effective than the so-called "morning-after-pill," Plan B, ella can also function as an abortion drug more like RU-486. On December 1st, Watson Pharmaceuticals began to aggressively promote ella over the internet and in pharmacies. Because ella is similar in its chemical make-up to the abortion drug RU-486, it therefore can destroy an implanted embryo, in...

A Plant City High School teacher has resigned after acknowledging she bought a "morning after pill" for a student and had inappropriate Facebook conversations with the student's boyfriend. Ginger Parks, a 17-year teaching veteran, resigned her job Sept. 22, less than a week after she was confronted with the allegations. She faced firing if she didn't quit, Hillsborough County School District records show. Parks, who taught English, also was the school's cheerleading coach. She at first denied any misconduct, the district reported, but changed her story when district investigator Andrew J. Rouleau told Parks he had 40 pages of printouts...

HARTFORD, Connecticut, June 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a disastrous chain of events, a set of “wanted” embryos quickly became “unwanted” after an artificially impregnated women was informed by her fertility clinic that they had accidentally implanted the embryos of another woman by the same name.The woman’s solution was to take the morning-after pill (which, ironically, pro-abortion forces insist is simply a form of contraception and cannot cause an abortion) and abort the nascent life within her.The Associated Press reports that the Center for Advanced Reproductive Services at the University of Connecticut Health Center has agreed to pay a $ 3,000 fine...

Obama Admin Forces Military Hospitals to Stock Morning After Pill Washington, DC -- Late Thursday, the Obama administration issued a new order for the U.S. military requiring all military hospitals and health centers to stock the morning after pill. The Department of Defense will soon begin having military medical facilities stock the Plan B drug, which can sometimes cause an abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/nat5967.html

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates are pushing a new drug that they say is an expanded morning after pill, or emergency contraception. However, pro-life doctors and advocates say Ellaone, also known as Ulipristal, works as an abortion drug and not an agent that prevents conception. The morning after pill, or Plan B drug, has been around for years and can either prevent fertilization from occurring or can sometimes act as an abortifacient by killing the unique human being fertilization develops.Ellaone is different -- instead of working hours or just a couple of days after sexual relations take place...

New Drug Ellaone Called Better Morning After Pill, It Causes Abortions London, England -- Abortion advocates are pushing a new drug that they say is an expanded morning after pill, or emergency contraception. However, pro-life doctors and advocates say Ellaone, also known as Ulipristal, works as an abortion drug and not an agent that prevents conception. http://www.LifeNews.com/int1446.html

Madrid, Spain, Jan 19, 2010 / 02:54 pm (CNA).- The Spanish Agency for Drugs and Health Care Products, which is under the Ministry of Health, recently stated in a report that serious physical side effects result from the use of the morning-after pill, such as ectopic pregnancies and deep vein thrombosis. According to the newspaper “La Razon,” the agency’s new research contradicts previous reports from the Ministry of Health, which claim the drug is safe for use. It argues that the pill can cause deep vein thrombosis, a condition in which a blood clot forms in a vein deep...

The most overturned appellate court has teed up another case for the Supreme Court to consider — and likely soon. The 9th Circuit overturned an injunction in a district court case, allowing the state of Washington to force a pharmacy to stock and dispense morning-after pills, which causes the abortion of an embryo in the early days of a pregnancy. The pharmacy owners had objected, claiming that the law violated their religious practice:

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life legal group has filed the papers necessary for a pro-life organization to challenge a federal court order that required the Food and Drug Administration to allow the Plan B drug to be sold to minor girls. The Alliance Defense fund filed the papers to intervene in the case. The group is acting on behalf of Concerned Women for America, the Christian Medical and Dental Association, and Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International.The pro-life organizations contend that the order disregards parental rights and the safety of teenage girls. Matt Bowman, a top attorney with ADF, talked...

The Louisiana Supreme Court Friday declined to hear an appeal by St. Tammany Parish Hospital in a nurse’s lawsuit filed by ADF attorneys and an ADF-allied attorney. A trial judge had ruled against issuing summary judgment in favor of the hospital, so that decision will stand. The nurse, Toni Lemly, sued the hospital in 2005 after it refused to grant a reasonable accommodation for her religious beliefs. “Pro-life medical personnel shouldn’t be penalized for their beliefs,” said ADF-allied attorney Brian Arabie of Lake Charles. “The hospital acted unlawfully when it refused to make a reasonable accommodation for Ms. Lemly and...

(CNSNews.com) – A federal court in New York on Monday expanded teenagers’ access to Plan B – also known as the morning-after pill or emergency contraception. The court gave the Food and Drug Administration 30 days to make Plan B available over the counter to 17 year olds. Right now, the pill is available over the county only to those 18 years and up. Pro-life groups are dismayed that 17-year-old girls will now have unrestricted access to a drug that can produce abortion by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. But abortion rights groups celebrated the ruling,...

A federal judge on Monday ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the Plan B morning-after birth control pill available without prescription to women as young as 17. The judge ruled the agency had improperly bowed to political pressure from the Bush Administration when it set 18 as the age limit in 2006. The F.D.A. has 30 days to comply with the order, in which the judge also urged the agency to consider removing all restrictions on over-the-counter sales of Plan B. The drug consists of two pills that prevent conception if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse....

Illinois pharmacists who object to dispensing emergency contraception won another day in court to fight a rule they claim forces them to choose between their livelihood and conscience. The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday said the circuit court must consider a lawsuit brought by two pharmacists who claim they should not be required to dispense emergency contraception because it violates their religious beliefs. Lower courts had dismissed those claims and refused to hear the case. Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2005 issued a rule prohibiting pharmacies from turning away women seeking emergency contraception, sometimes called the morning-after pill.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new national survey shows the Plan B drug, as known as the morning after pill, is more available across the United States following a 2006 FDA decision to sell it to adults over the counter. However, anecdotal stats from other places where it is readily available show it not reducing abortions.Dr. Rebekah Gee of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine conducted the study, which involved surveys of pharmacies in Atlanta, Boston, and Philadelphia in 2005 and again in 2007.Some 1,087 pharmacies participated in the first round of surveys while 795 were involved in the...