As many of you know, the Board of Visitors of James Madison University
recently voted (by a very close vote) to no longer allow women to buy
emergency contraception from the campus dispensary. Now they must go to
a regular pharmacy off campus and pay full price when they are in need
of EC.

JMU Board of Visitors member Mark Obenshain, a Republican candidate for
the Virginia state senate, had put the matter on the BoV agenda in
response to a letter from Del. Bob Marshall.

Students at JMU are protesting this move, and the university president
does not support the decision. Are other Virginia colleges and
universities next? The Virginian-Pilot discusses this matter and
Planned Parenthood's billboards in the following editorial:


Assembly leader puts birth control at risk
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 4, 2003

A few weeks back we chided Planned Parenthood for raising a false alarm
with a new advertising campaign.

```Think Virginia won't vote away your birth control pills? Think
again,'' says one Planned Parenthood billboard.

``Think you have the freedom to choose contraception? VA says think
again,'' reads another.

C'mon, we argued. No way a majority of Virginia lawmakers would deny
birth control pills to women.

We still think that's a true statement. For one thing, the U.S. Supreme
Court forbids states from banning contraceptives.

But recent events atJamesMadisonUniversityaffirm another truth: Some
legislators would gladly deprive some women of birth control measures
in some circumstances. The Planned Parenthood warning, it turns out, is
not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Responding to a complaint by Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, the
standard-bearer of anti-abortionists at the General Assembly, the JMU
board voted to stop dispensing emergency contraception to
students.Marshall's complaint is that the so-called ``morning-after
pill'' regimenworks, at times, by preventing the implantation of a
fertilized egg in the uterus.

This, toMarshall, is an abortion, since he believes, contrary to the
widely accepted medical definition of pregnancy, that life begins when
egg and sperm are joined, rather than when they are implanted.

``For the University to be in any way associated with semantic
manipulations to facilitate the acceptance of drugs that can cause
early abortion of unwitting JMU co-eds is most troubling,'' wrote
Marshall, who also conveyed his sentiments to the University of
Virginia, Virginia Tech and other Virginia schools.

Marshallwarned that, under a recent parental-consent law, university
officials are risking a $2,500 civil penalty if they fail to get the
approval of a girl's parents before facilitating this ``abortion.''

To carryMarshall's complaint to its logical conclusion, however, the
officials are taking the same risk by dispensing birth control pills,
period. That's because ``emergency contraception'' and regular
contraception from birth control pillsworkin precisely the same ways.
The morning-after dosage is simply higher.

Marshallacknowledges the fact, although he says the difference in
intention makes morning-after contraception worse. His preference would
be for campus pharmacies to get out of the birth-control business
altogether. While legislators don't have the authority to ban
contraceptives generally, they can and should refuse to subsidize them
on college campuses, he says.

The delegate, who gained statewide notice a few years back by leading
the drive to keep Hugh Finn on artificial life support over the
objections of his wife, is opposed to human interference with what he
views as divine processes. ButMarshall's moral judgments and, frankly,
extreme views about the genesis of life ought not dictate
family-planning law in the commonwealth.

Many young women take birth control pills for reasons that have nothing
to do with sexual intercourse. Many others are properly taking
precautions to prevent an unwanted pregnancy and, perhaps, a genuine
abortion. So long as the state elects to curb college costs by
dispensing drugs at reduced prices, broadly used reproductive medicines
ought to be part of the mix.

When he arrived inRichmonda decade ago,Marshallwas on the political
fringe. Now, the Republican Party has tacked so far to the right,
particularly in the House of Delegates, that he is in the mainstream.
Not every woman is in danger of losing birth control as a result, but
it is alarming that some are.

--
Valerie L'Herrou
Coalition Projects Director
Virginians Aligned Against Sexual Assault
434.979.9002
http://www.vaasa.org