James Madison stops providing 'morning after' pill to students

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- In response to a complaint from a state legislator, James Madison University will stop providing "morning after" birth-control pills at its campus health center.

The state-supported college's board of visitors voted Friday to stop dispensing the emergency contraception pill after receiving a letter from Del. Robert Marshall, R-Manassas, criticizing the practice.

Apr 25, 2003
Right

A recent decision by James Madison University's governing board prohibiting the sale of the emergency contraceptive Plan B has caused the typical knee-jerk reaction from the usual suspects. Democratic Party chairman Larry Framme wrote, "A doctor's relationship with his patient is sacrosanct, and medical decisions should remain private. It is extremely disturbing to think that the Republican Party - led by Delegate Robert Marshall, one of the legislature's most radical abortion opponents - and Republican appointees to the JMU Board of Visitors think they should take the place of a woman's doctor at her bedside."
The problem is that the action has nothing to do with a doctor's relationship with his patient or "private" medical decisions. Instead it has everything to do with dispensing the drug or drugs prescribed by a doctor. JMU will not allow the sale of Plan B in its health center, but docs there still have the ability to prescribe it - which is the way at Christopher Newport and Longwood, where no school pharmacies exist. Perhaps student-supported health centers ought not to be in the business of selling prescription drugs.
One student says the school's prohibition on the sale of Plan B "is literally a time issue." Yet when students are at home, they generally go to Dr. Smith, who prescribes Drug X and Drug Y. And in most cases, those students will then go to Westbury or CVS or any number of other pharmacies to have the good doctor's prescriptions filled. How would JMU's rule be any different? And how will there be any "time issue" to get to one of the four pharmacies in Harrisonburg that carry Plan B?
There is nothing wrong with Plan B, but should student-funded health centers be one-stop shops for young people having unprotected sex?
JMU did the right thing; perhaps it ought to consider banning the sale of all prescription medications as well. And perhaps William & Mary, George Mason, Mary Washington, ODU, Radford, UVa, VCU, and Virginia Tech should follow its lead.

RTD Editorial
=======
Hear! Hear!

Apr 25, 2003

Did JMU jump gun with pill-sale ban?

Kilgore had said wait for study
BY CALVIN R. TRICE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Times-Dispatch
NBC12 Poll

Should JMU reconsider selling the contraceptive 'Plan B' pill on campus?
Yes
No
Undecided

Weeks before James Madison University voted to stop selling emergency contraception on campus, the attorney general's office warned lawyers for all public colleges that it wanted to craft a statewide position on the pills first.

That position may include a determination whether, in effect, the pill causes an abortion.

The attorney general's office repeated the warning to all colleges this week on Wednesday, five days after the JMU board of visitors took its vote.

Spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore sent an e-mail about the issue on April 4 to his lawyers who are assigned to public colleges and universities.

The e-mail warned the lawyers that Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, was sending out a letter critical of public colleges distributing the "morning-after" pill on campus, Murtaugh said.

"We asked all of the schools to wait to respond until we could look at the legal questions on this. We didn't want 10 different schools having 10 different reactions," Murtaugh said.

Kilgore's office wanted a "co- ordinated response" to Marshall's concerns, he said.

Kilgore sent the e-mail after it learned of Marshall's letter on March 31, Murtaugh said.

In a March 19 letter to JMU president Linwood H. Rose, Marshall said the school had misnamed the pill "emergency contraception," whereas the medication really could cause an abortion.

Marshall also warned the school that it could face liability problems if it continued to distribute the pill on campus.

He called the school's attention to Virginia's informed-consent law. It requires an abortion provider to offer information about abortion and alternatives 24 hours before the procedure, and to get informed, written consent from a woman before she undergoes the procedure.

Murtaugh said the attorney general's office will decide whether the drug falls under the state's informed-consent law.

The "morning-after pill" must be taken within 72 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse.

The medication prevents pregnancy in one of three ways: by inhibiting ovulation or the release of an egg; by stopping egg and sperm from meeting; or by preventing a fertilized egg from being implanted in the uterus.

Marshall says that preventing implantation of a fertilized egg is early abortion.

Murtaugh maintained yesterday that Kilgore's e-mail request has no bearing on JMU's decision, which Kilgore considers a policy decision within the discretion of its governing board.

Board members discussed the Marshall letter before taking the vote last Friday, school spokesman Fred Hilton said.

However JMU's attorney, Tabor Cronk, didn't know that any legal issues would be raised at the board's meeting so he didn't attend, Murtaugh said.

Some board members did raise legal questions about the emergency contraception policy at the meeting, Hilton said.

With 14 of the board's 15 members present, eight voted to order the university's health center to stop selling the morning-after pill, Plan B, Hilton said.

The vote prompted an uproar on campus. By Tuesday, students had collected more than 2,700 signatures on a petition opposed to the board's action and the Student Government Senate overwhelmingly voted to ask the board to reverse its decision.

Students plan to hold a campus rally on Monday. Student Government Association President Levar Stoney, of Yorktown, said the board of visitors should reconsider its action at a future meeting. The board's next meeting is June 6.

Physicians at JMU's health center still prescribe the drug, but the students must now go off-campus to buy it. It cost $15 on campus. A campus Web site says local pharmacies charge about $26 to $31 for a dose.

Marshall said Monday that he is raising similar questions with all other state-supported schools in Virginia whose campus health facilities dispense the pill. At least eight other Virginia public colleges sell the drug on campus.

Meanwhile, the JMU board's makeup will change significantly this year.

Ten of the body's 15 members are appointees of Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican, and five are appointees of Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat, said Warner spokeswoman Ellen Qualls.

Warner will fill another five seats when those terms expire June 30, Qualls said.

"Ideological litmus tests are not part of the selection process," Qualls said. Warner's visitor selection process is intended to be free of politics, she said.

She said Warner thinks decisions such as the one about the pill should be made after consulting the full university community.

She said he compared the JMU decision to the Virginia Tech board's controversial vote to remove racial considerations as a factor in making admissions and hiring decisions.

The March 10 vote was rescinded April 6.

Contact Calvin R. Trice at (540) 574-9977 or ctrice@timesdispatch.com

RTD

April 30, 2003

Delegate wants pill off state campuses
By Jon Ward
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A Virginia state delegate said he will use the legislature's health committee to stop the distribution of an emergency contraceptive pill at state universities.

Delegate Robert G. Marshall, a pro-life Prince William County Republican, has criticized the University of Virginia and nine other state-supported schools for dispensing the contraceptive RU-486 for 10 years before it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998.

In a letter sent Monday to university President John T. Casteen, Mr. Marshall said the school was "conducting a medical experiment on UVa. co-eds for ten years."

"Co-eds should not be guinea pigs, period," Mr. Marshall said yesterday. "This does not bode well for the confidence that Virginia has placed in their institutions of higher learning. Do you want to send your kid to a school that does this?"

In his letter, Mr. Marshall demanded that Mr. Casteen divulge whether female students were informed that the pills were not FDA-approved or were warned about side effects, and whether the school conducted follow-up sessions to detect any long-term health effects.

"If they did no follow-up of these women, then it's a complete scandal," he said yesterday.

University officials said they will release a statement today in response to Mr. Marshall's letter.

Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore is reviewing issues raised by Mr. Marshall about whether dispensing RU-486 violates Virginia's informed-consent law. The law requires abortion providers to give women information about abortion and alternatives 24 hours before a procedure and to obtain written consent from a woman before she undergoes a procedure.

Mr. Marshall said he will take the issue to the General Assembly's committee on Health Welfare and Institutions, led by Delegate Phillip A. Hamilton, Newport News Republican.

Even if he is not able to produce legislation that would bar the so-called morning-after pill from state schools, Mr. Marshall said he intends to "clamp down" on university health procedures.

Delegate Vivian E. Watts, Annandale Democrat, said she thinks the pill is needed at universities.

"You've got to allow for the full range of circumstances, which is going to include young women who are having sex when they didn't plan on having sex," she said. "It's not a decision I necessarily want to encourage, but I want people to be responsible about the decision to be a parent."

Mr. Marshall persuaded trustees at James Madison University to stop distributing the pill April 20, arguing that the pill constitutes a form of abortion because it keeps an egg from being released for fertilization or changes the lining of the uterus to prevent a fertilized egg from growing.

But the JMU student senate voted 54-6 to issue a bill of opinion supporting distribution of the pill. JMU's trustees, the Board of Visitors, will consider the bill at a June meeting.

Officials at other state-supported universities said last week that they have no plans to stop dispensing the pills.

http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030430-32357116.htm

===

A visit to the http://www.jmu.edu website turns up no email addresses for the Board of Visitors that I could find. Any ideas on how else to contact them? One name I recognized from Eagle Forum is Morton Blackwell's wife, Helen. The directory page at the Eagle Forum website is http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/states/states.html .

Our universities don't need to be in the business of dispensing abortifacients when every college town has a pharmacy.

Thursday, May 1, 2003 Updated: 04.30.03
ECPs not abortion drugs
by Toni Duncan / news editor

With debate consuming JMU's campus over the emergency contraceptive pills, confusion has arisen over its use and effects.
ECPs are not the morning-after pill or RU-486, the abortion pill, according to Ann Simmons, the coordinator of health education and wellness program at the University Health Center.
"We do not provide abortion services at the Health Center," Simmons said.
JMU does not offer or prescribe the abortion pill. Only a physician can dispense Mifepristone, also known as the RU-486 pill, Simmons said.
According to the Food and Drug Administration Web site, www.fda.gov, ECPs either can "delay or prevent ovulation … make it difficult for sperm to fertilize an egg … [or] produce changes in the lining of the womb."
The 2002-'03 "Pocket Guide to Managing Contraception" states that "ECPs act by preventing pregnancy and never by disrupting an implanted pregnancy."
ECPs come in two forms, according to www.not-2-late.com. The first form contains estrogen and progestin, the same hormones that are in birth control pills. This form cuts the chance of pregnancy by 75 percent.
The other form, Plan B, which is the pill that JMU used to distribute and still prescribes, contains only the progestin hormone. According to the Web site, this cuts the chance of pregnancy by 89 percent.
These "pills contain exactly the same drugs as regular birth control pills, only in higher doses and work in exactly the same way," according to the Not-2-Late Web site.
"A women doesn't become pregnant until five to seven days after having sex," according to www.emergencybirthcontrol.com. "Emergency birth control works after a woman has sex but before she becomes pregnant," the Web site said.
The Web site also said that the pill cannot "cause her to have an abortion any time after she has actually become pregnant." As a result the site said that this pill can prevent 1.7 million unwanted pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year.
However, RU-486 is a drug that can abort a pregnancy during the first trimester, according to the emergency birth control Web site.
According to the Charlottesville Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health, a patient must be seven weeks pregnant or under for it to be taken. Also, a "patient cannot be more than 30 minutes away from emergency medical care" because of possible complications, according to the pamphlet.
The RU-486 drug blocks the hormone progesterone and "thereby ends the viability of the fetus." It then is followed by an injection that expels the fetus.
According to www.abortionclinic.org, RU-486 allows women to have a non-surgical abortion; however, if the pill does not work then the woman must have a surgical abortion. About 5 to 10 percent of patients may require the surgical abortion even after taking the pill, according to the Charlottesville Center.
JMU Student Newspaper, The Breeze
=====

May 07, 2003
Marshall: Let parents have say at JMU
BY CALVIN R. TRICE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

HARRISONBURG - A state lawmaker who has criticized James Madison University's policies on contraception and sex education told a newspaper this week that the school's president should resign.
But Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, backed off that position yesterday, suggesting instead that he and JMU President Linwood Rose submit their written correspondence to people whose children attend the university.
"Both of us are supposed to serve the parents who send their kids to JMU. Let them decide what they want," Marshall said.
JMU spokesman Fred Hilton said Rose has no plans to resign. The president declined to comment on Marshall's challenge, Hilton said.
The delegate had told the Daily News Record of Harrisonburg, "The board of visitors is going to be dealing with more issues than the morning-after pill."
"Frankly, I think he should resign," Marshall said of Rose in the story published yesterday.
Asked about those statements, he tempered them - saying he would prefer that Rose change the school's policies. Marshall said he will not actively pursue Rose's resignation but would consider such an option at a later time. He said he thinks parents should determine the school's future concerning sexual health at the university.
"Send out his letters to parents and send out mine and ask them, 'Which one do you want for your kids?'" Marshall said. "If he prevails, I can readily accept that."
The delegate has needled the university with criticism on policies concerning contraception and sexual health.
He wrote a letter to Rose in March criticizing JMU for selling doses of the "morning-after" contraception pill Plan B, which Marshall considers to be a method of abortion. Rose wrote back and defended the practice, citing federal regulations that classify Plan B as a way to prevent a pregnancy - not terminate one.
Distributed to the school's board of visitors, the letter led to the governing body's decision last month to stop selling the medication at the university Health Center.
Last week, Marshall wrote Rose another letter objecting to a demonstration put on during an April 26 health fair, called Sexfest 2003, organized by students to educate their peers on sexual assault, sexual responsibility and other health topics.
In a statement released this week, Rose lauded the students for volunteering to organize the one-time event "aimed at informing and helping their fellow students."

Contact Calvin R. Trice at (540) 574-9977 or ctrice@timesdispatch.com

RTD

May 07, 2003

Marshall finds his mission in conservative causes
BOB LEWIS
Associated Press Writer

WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) _ Dispensing cut-rate emergency contraceptives to college women at Virginia's public universities put Del. Robert G. Marshall into a conservative dither.

When he got word of it, he dashed off indignant letters that made college presidents and boards of visitors squirm and landed Marshall, the legislature's most prolific author of anti-abortion bills the past 10 years, squarely on front pages and newscasts.

Then he discovered that James Madison University students had presented a safe-sex exposition on campus that included a simulation of the difficulty of putting on a condom while drunk. The 59-year-old conservative gadfly found his dream issue.

"I think it's phallic worship on campus," Marshall, R-Prince William, said in an interview. "I mean, what's the world coming to?"

Marshall's world knows no backing down, no fear of failure or ridicule _ and no elective abortions. In his world, public school kids would salute God and the flag, and more kids would be educated at private schools or at home, as his children have been.

He's unapologetically old school.

He bowed his head in a busy, trendy restaurant Monday and said grace over his meal. Baptized a Roman Catholic at age 10, he regularly prays his rosary and attends Mass. During Virginia's brief, frantic midwinter sessions, he drives home from Richmond most every night _ a 140-mile daily round trip.

"Unless it's very late, when my wife insists I stay down there, I try to come home and do something with the kids," he said. Recently, he read Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" to his 18-year-old daughter.

He drives a Chevy Caprice that was once a State Police cruiser _ the fifth decommissioned police car he's owned since the late 1970s. Speeding drivers pump their brakes when they spot the car, Marshall said with a mischievous look.

For years, he was tolerated as the Capitol Square character, the oddball guarding the right flank of the General Assembly's ascendant Republicans.

When Democrats ruled the House, they derided and dismissed his perennial efforts to curb abortion rights and provide tax-supported vouchers for parents who want to send their kids to private schools. Some Republicans would even groan and roll their eyes at Marshall's antics, and a few still do.

"He used to file all these amendments and would cut out things already printed, and I'd have to rule them out of order. Sometimes it was a bunch of stuff from magazines and newspapers _ anti-abortion stuff, mostly," said former Del. Thomas W. Moss, a Democrat who served as House Speaker through 1999 and gained a grudging respect for Marshall.

"Oh, he's not dumb. No sir. When it comes to right-to-life, though, he's close to being fanatical. Of course, he has his right to his opinion, and I didn't share it," Moss said.

The past four years have won broader acceptance for Marshall since the GOP took a decisive House majority, thanks to a crop of conservative newcomers who see the world somewhat as he does.

"The political center has moved. Because we've gone after these issues year after year, the center moves," Marshall said.

Mary Washington College political scientist Stephen J. Farnsworth agreed.

"There's a dramatically more powerful right wing in the Republican Party and a much more dominant Republican Party. What was once considered extreme is now approaching mainstream," Farnsworth said.

Marshall was raised in Maryland as a blue-collar Democrat. He supported John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Hubert H. Humphrey in '68. A year later, he was alarmed by Maryland's efforts to liberalize its abortion laws and wrote to then-Gov. Marvin Mandel in protest. He met his future wife, Cathy, at an anti-abortion organization meeting.

"She thought I was a spy sent there by the pro-choice people," he said.

The liberal bent of George McGovern's failed 1972 presidential bid taught Marshall he was no Democrat. An unsuccessful independent bid for a Maryland House of Delegates seat in 1974 showed him the necessity of party moorings. He settled on the GOP in 1978, when he worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif.

Through the 1980s, he and his wife were involved with such abortion opposition groups as the American Life League. He was the executive director for family life affairs at the Arlington Catholic Diocese, "setting up pro-life leaders in each of the parishes," Marshall said. Those ties helped him build a base of political support in Prince William's affluent suburbs that has given him six consecutive House terms. He is unopposed this year.

Last year, Marshall authored Virginia laws that require the national motto, "In God We Trust," be posted in public schools, courtrooms and administration buildings.

Marshall was chief sponsor this year of 11 abortion-related bills, including a measure banning a rarely used, late-term procedure abortion foes call "partial-birth infanticide." The measure takes effect July 1.

Reproductive-rights groups fear Marshall and fellow social conservatives are targeting birth control, and they cite as proof Marshall's attacks on public colleges that subsidize "morning after" pills and particularly JMU for its campus Sexfest 2003 condom-use exhibit.

"We created these Web sites and billboards in a campaign alerting the people of Virginia to the dangers to women's access to contraceptives. People said it was baseless, but no sooner than we did it, here Bob Marshall goes and initiates all these letters about emergency contraceptives at state colleges and universities," said Bennet Greenberg, government relations director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia.

Greenberg, who spars frequently with Marshall, said, "I really do have a great deal of respect for him. I believe he presents his information in a way which is less than comprehensive and accurate, but it represents his point of view and he takes it on with as much fervor as anyone I have ever seen."

A personal loss has helped spur Marshall to become a leading advocate of so-called "smart growth" legislation to tame unchecked sprawl in Washington's traffic-choked northern Virginia suburbs, and to demand more effective mass transit. In November 2001, his 21-year-old son, Christopher, was killed when the car he was in ran into a tractor-trailer parked unexpectedly on an Interstate highway off-ramp.

"I must have cried every day for eight or nine months," Marshall said.

He still writes his departed son notes every day. At a friend's suggestion, he took up photography as a way to cope and has prowled the House floor and committee rooms with a Nikon for the past two years.

And then there's legislation: House Bill 1641, signed into law last month by Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat. The law requires commercial trucks stopped in or beside state roads for reasons other than traffic signals or police instructions to warn motorists by using emergency flashers or conspicuous triangular reflectors.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/vaapwire/MGB0ZU1GFFD.html

JMU defends campus event to lawmaker
By Jon Ward
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A Virginia lawmaker and the president of James Madison University clashed yesterday about a sex-education festival held last month at the state school in Harrisonburg.

President Linwood H. Rose defended the on-campus event, SexFest 2003, which included a demonstration of how to put on a condom.

In a written statement, Mr. Rose said the April 26 program was a health fair intended to teach students about "safe sex." He acknowledged that some people "have received an erroneous impression about the event because of its title, which is actually a misnomer."

Mr. Rose said the event was a "health-education program ... where students could learn about sexual responsibility."

State Delegate Robert G. Marshall, Manassas Republican, however, said last night that Mr. Rose's explanation didn't pass the "blush test."

Mr. Marshall blasted Mr. Rose for not "providing better leadership" by allowing students to hold an event during which students tried to fit a condom on a fake penis while wearing glasses that blurred their vision to simulate drunkenness.

"Do you really mean that to be fully educated, college students need JMU's bawdy show-and-tell condom-and-fake-penis presentation? You will find a significant number of JMU parents and Virginia taxpayers dissenting from such a conclusion," he said.

Mr. Marshall said condoms and pamphlets were distributed at the event, but that abstinence was not promoted as an alternative.

Mr. Rose acknowledged that abstinence was not promoted during the program, but said that brochures on abstinence were available. He also said it would be "extremely naive" to think that college students do not engage in sexual activity or drink alcohol.

"In a perfect world, it would be nice to think that college students do not engage in premarital sex nor drink alcohol, but that would be extremely naive," Mr. Rose said in the statement. "The important thing is that students are fully educated."

Mr. Rose also applauded organizers for holding a program that tried to teach students about "safe sex," sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, rape and health topics such as prostate cancer.

Mr. Marshall first questioned the event May 1, when he received a call from a constituent whose daughter attends JMU. Mr. Marshall sent a letter to university officials, asking them to explain why the event was held. Mr. Rose explained the purpose of the event in his statement yesterday.

Students had mixed emotions about the event and the condom demonstration.

David Clementson — news editor at the university's student newspaper, the Breeze — said the condom demonstration was not necessary.

"Seeing as JMU was picked as the 25th-best party school by Playboy magazine last November, I don't think the students here need a whole lot of help with that kind of stuff," he said. "That's just silly. It's not educational. it's frivolous."

But Samantha Wood, student coordinator for Reality Educators Advocating Campus Health, which held the demonstration, defended the group's actions.

"What was promoted was sexual responsibility, be that through abstinence or condoms. It doesn't promote sex. Talking about sex doesn't make students go out and have it," she said. "Ignoring something and not talking about it is only going to make the problem worse."

Miss Wood said the event was not sponsored by the university's health center. Instead, a small group of students not affiliated with any school-funded group decided to hold the program and invited Miss Wood's group and three others to attend.

The group, which uses school funds to promote health issues on campus, is sponsored by the school's health center.

The other groups who participated in the event were Campus Assault Response, which operates the campus assault help line; Equal, a women's rights group; and One in Four, an all-male group that provides information on assault and rape.

Mr. Marshall has challenged sex-education policies and practices at Virginia public colleges and universities three times during the past three weeks.

On April 20, Mr. Marshall sent a letter to the University of Virginia's Board of Visitors criticizing the school's health center for dispensing the contraceptive pill known as RU-486 for 10 years before it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998.

As a result, the school's board ordered the health center to stop distribution.

The same day, Mr. Marshall also criticized JMU for distributing the morning-after pill, arguing that it constitutes a form of abortion because it keeps an egg from being released for fertilization or changes the lining of the uterus to prevent a fertilized egg from growing.

The JMU Student Senate voted 54-6 to issue a bill of opinion supporting distribution of the pill. JMU's Board of Visitors will consider the bill at a meeting next month.

http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030506-16777309.htm

''Morning-after'' decision may impede governorship quest
By WARREN FISKE AND PHILIP WALZER, The Virginian-Pilot
© May 14, 2003

RICHMOND -- Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore has given most state colleges a go-ahead to continue dispensing emergency contraception pills in an action that could complicate his drive toward Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2005.

In a written opinion issued to college presidents late last week, Kilgore said that taking so-called ``morning-after pills'' should not be characterized as a form of abortion -- a position at odds with many socially conservative leaders in his party.

Kilgore's opinion appeared to reject abortion opponents' longstanding argument that pregnancy occurs at the moment of conception. The attorney general instead concluded that pregnancy legally takes place when a fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus wall.

The distinction is important because emergency contraception, typically taken up to 72 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse, prevents pregnancy from occurring in one of three ways: by inhibiting ovulation or the release of an egg; by stopping egg and sperm from meeting; or by preventing the fertilized egg from implanting.

Anti-abortion groups maintain that stopping the implantation of an egg is an early abortion. Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, wrote several university presidents questioning the dispensing of the pills by campus clinics. Marshall warned that college physicians may be violating state ``informed-consent laws,'' which require women, before terminating pregnancies, to receive detailed information about adoption and the risks of abortion.

P O L L

Should colleges be able to distribute ''morning-after'' contraception pills to students?

Yes
No
Undecided

View results

TalkNet: Did Kilgore make the right decision?
Background Coverage:
Delegate earns fans, foes - even in own party

Shortly after getting Marshall's letter, the board of visitors at James Madison University voted to ban campus doctors from prescribing the medicine -- essentially a heavy dose of birth control pills. Students have petitioned the board to reconsider its decision.

Other colleges delayed any action until Kilgore weighed in. Several universities -- including Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary -- announced Tuesday that they would continue distributing emergency contraception.

Kilgore said state laws do not bar any campus clinic with a pharmacy permit from dispensing emergency contraception. Instead, he said, the decision on whether to allow such prescriptions should be left to each university's board.

Kilgore's opinion comes at the precise moment he is seeking to ward off any competition for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

He is expected to raise $500,000 for his campaign today by hosting a Richmond luncheon featuring former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

``This could be a very dangerous position for him,'' Marshall said. ``He's completely undone our informed-consent law. He could be in a lot of trouble with his base.''

The opinion also was criticized by The Family Foundation, an influential conservative lobby based in Richmond.

``This is a severe blow to everything we've been working on,'' said Victoria Cobb, a spokeswoman for the group. ``We believe it is critical that women know these pills are not only contraceptive in nature, but also abortive.''

Marshall and Cobb said Kilgore erred in siding with a definition that pregnancy occurs when a fertilized egg is implanted. They said many medical dictionaries say it begins at conception.

Abortion-rights advocates had mixed feelings about Kilgore's opinion. Some were pleased by its overall gist. Others voiced concern about a section in which Kilgore defined the licensing requirements necessary for a clinic to prescribe the drug. They worried that some university health centers would not qualify.

``He found a middle ground,'' said Bennet Greenberg, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia.

Greenberg said he still regards Kilgore as an opponent, noting that the attorney general has supported a number of measures over the past two years to restrict access to abortions. ``I have seen nothing to suggest that he is in any way friendly to abortion rights,'' Greenberg said.

Locally, Christopher Newport and Norfolk State universities do not provide either the pill or prescriptions for it.

``I don't think we have a need for that here,'' NSU spokeswoman Sharon R. Hoggard said. ``There has never been a request for something like that, to my knowledge.''

ODU provides the pills to students after advising them that ``this is not the normal contraceptive measure,'' Vice President Dana D. Burnett said. ``This is an emergency contraceptive measure.''

Burnett said Old Dominion does not intend to stop giving them out.

``It wouldn't be the method we would advocate initially,'' Burnett said. But sometimes the morning-after pill is appropriate if ``the No. 1 choice either didn't work or maybe it wasn't their choice to engage in sex at all but it was forced upon them.'' Perhaps a student found herself in this situation and it was unplanned, Burnett added.

William and Mary does not plan changes, either, spokesman William T. Walker Jr. said. The college has administered the pill for six years, he said, but only on two conditions: if students had unprotected sex and if the pill was taken within 72 hours of sex.

Reach Warren Fiske at fiske@richmond.infi.net or (804) 697-1565.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=54077&ran=173809

=====

Giuliani stumps for Kilgore at campaign fund raiser
By BOB LEWIS, Associated Press
© May 14, 2003
Last updated 5:10 PM May. 14

RICHMOND -- Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani urged a Republican crowd Wednesday to ensure the election of Jerry Kilgore as governor, even though the election is still more than two years away.

About 750 Republican activists paid a total of more than $500,000 to the Republican attorney general's 2005 campaign for governor.

Giuliani, himself a former prosecutor as Kilgore was, said the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York taught him that no election can be taken for granted.

``I realized the importance of the November 2000 election about an hour after the attacks as I looked at the destruction,'' Giuliani said. He said he called the White House, seeking air support from fighter jets, and got it immediately. He then turned to New York's police chief, ``and I told him 'Thank God George Bush is the President of the United States.'''

The event brought together the Republican Party's feuding conservatives and moderates, who paid from $100 to $25,000 per plate. One contributor voluntarily paid $50,000 to attend the event. In 2001, the rift between the factions was an important factor in the election of Democratic Governor Mark R. Warner, with thousands of disaffected Republicans throwing their support behind Warner.

Del. Robert F. McDonnell, R-Virginia Beach, said the event essentially ensured the Republican nomination for Kilgore.

``The party is united, there won't be a nomination fight and this gives Kilgore about a 3-to-1 fundraising advantage. It's a great sign,'' said McDonnell, who is running for attorney general in 2005.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=54115&ran=219504

Kilgore says law doesn't apply to pill

BY CARLOS SANTOS AND PAMELA STALLSMITH
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS
May 15, 2003

Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore has issued an advisory memo to state college and university presidents that says Virginia's abortion laws do not apply to emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill.

"It is our opinion that a court in interpreting Virginia's abortion laws would adopt the common clinical definition of 'pregnancy' as that point when a fertilized ovum is implanted in the uterine wall," according to the four-page opinion from Kilgore's office, a copy of which was obtained by The Times-Dispatch.

"It is therefore the advice of this office that the informed-consent provisions . . . do not apply to the dispensing of this prescription medication."

The issue first surfaced after Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, considered the General Assembly's most vocal abortion foe, wrote college presidents this spring to warn that they could be violating the state's informed-consent law if their colleges dispense the pills.

The consent law requires women to receive information about adoption, fetal development and abortion at least 24 hours before they undergo the procedure.

Kilgore, speaking to reporters after a fund-raising lunch yesterday featuring former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, said, "We do not know of one pregnancy test that is reliable until 10 days to three weeks away from the sexual activity."

The state's abortion laws "do not apply to these pills. We do not believe the statute was written broad enough to apply to these pills," Kilgore said.

"As attorney general, I've got to interpret the law in the way it was written. I don't sit down in the attorney general's office and rewrite the laws of the General Assembly."

Marshall maintains the pills can abort a fertilized egg by preventing it from being implanted in the uterus. Marshall disagreed with Kilgore's opinion, which was issued Friday and first reported by The Associated Press, saying that emergency contraceptives are a form of abortion and would devastate Virginia's informed-consent law.

Emergency contraceptives usually must be taken within 72 hours after unprotected sexual intercourse to be effective. The drugs work by either preventing the release of the egg, preventing fertilization or by interfering with the implantation of the egg.

Most opponents, including Marshall, consider the interference with the implantation of the egg to be a type of abortion. Some major medical organizations, however, do not consider emergency contraceptives a form of abortion.

Marshall said Kilgore's opinion gives "abortionists a green light to gut the laws of Virginia."

Emergency contraception, Marshall said yesterday, "clearly acts after human life has begun" and for that reason should come under the state's informed-consent law, which requires that women be told about adoption and the risk of abortion before their pregnancy is terminated.

Kilgore's opinion stretches beyond college campuses, said Marshall, who wrote letters to James Madison University and the University of Virginia questioning the legality and propriety of dispensing emergency contraceptives by campus clinics.

JMU's board of visitors voted April 18 to ban campus physicians from dispensing the medicine after Marshall's criticism.

Kilgore's opinion probably will not change anything at JMU.

"It's a matter for board policy," said Fred Hilton, a JMU spokesman. "At the last board meeting, they decided not to dispense the drug. The board could reconsider but there is no indication they are going to do that."

The school's student health center still gives prescriptions for a morning-after pill called Plan B. But the prescription now must be filled at private pharmacies off campus, Hilton said.

In a related matter, the Virginians Aligned Against Sexual Assault and Virginians Against Domestic Violence have canceled their annual training retreat at JMU to protest the board's ban on dispensing emergency contraceptives.

The retreat, which draws about 200 participants, was to be held at the school in June. The retreat has been moved instead to Virginia Tech, which still offers its students emergency contraceptives.

At the University of Virginia, Kilgore's opinion was applauded.

"We're pleased with the attorney general's memorandum, but we have been confident from the beginning that the university has been in full compliance with all policies and standards relating to the prescribing and dispensing of emergency contraceptives," said Carol Wood, a U.Va. spokeswoman.

"The health and safety of our students is a primary concern of all the clinicians who work at our department of student health," she said.

U.Va. has been providing emergency contraceptives since 1988. Since that time, the school has provided emergency contraceptives to 1,242 women, including 262 women last year.

Marshall had also written U.Va. demanding to know how the school could have dispensed emergency contraceptives before the FDA approved the drugs. Plan B was approved in 1999. Preven, a similar product, was approved by the FDA in 1998.

Other FDA-approved drugs have been used for several decades as emergency contraceptives, though not marketed for that purpose.

In a May 9 letter, U.Va. officials responded by noting that "FDA approval applies only to the commercial marketing of a drug . . . Off-label use of prescription medications, such as was the case at the university during this period, is common in medical practice and is not considered experimentation by the FDA.

"The university began off-label use of emergency contraception in 1988 after a number of national studies conducted after 1974 showed such use to be safe and effective."

Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or csantos@timesdispatch.com

Contact Pamela Stallsmith at (804) 649-6746 or pstallsmith@timesdispatch.com

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/vametro/MGB2DFO2QFD.html

Lawmaker tells colleges to curb sex education
By Jon Ward
Published May 18, 2003

Virginia state Delegate Robert G. Marshall believes colleges and universities should pursue the truth, not promote sex education.

That's why this summer Mr. Marshall, Manassas Republican, is taking it upon himself to change the way Virginia institutions handle the subject. And he's not wasting any time.

Mr. Marshall recently asked to meet with James Madison University President Linwood Rose, whose students last month held a so-called "SexFest" that included a demonstration of how to put on a condom. Mr. Marshall also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with officials at the University of Virginia to determine the school's policy on emergency contraception (EC).

Mr. Marshall, 59, said he's dismayed that public universities are dispensing EC and holding "sex fests." He partly blames what he sees as a moral decline in America on the institutions because he says they have strayed from their primary purpose of pursuing truth.

"They can't even think straight when it comes to sex, some of these people," said Mr. Marshall, who is the state legislature's most prolific author of anti-abortion bills. "They're really skating on thin ice."

Mr. Marshall said the recent string of incidents at some state universities raises the question about the role of today's institutions.

"For a university to first not try to discover the truth is so profound. The university is not pursuing its first mission: discovery, cultivation and protection of the truth," he said. "They want to cover up the truth so you can engage in behavior you wouldn't otherwise."

So last spring, Mr. Marshall decided to try to change how colleges handle sex education policies and practices.

In March, Mr. Marshall sent letters to 10 state-supported universities, asking officials to explain why their schools were giving EC, also known as the "morning-after" pill, to students.

Last month, Mr. Marshall sent a letter to University of Virginia President John T. Casteen, accusing the school of distributing EC since 1995, three years before the drug was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. He also filed a FOIA request with the school to determine whether officials keep any medical records of students who receive the contraception.

"A woman could go in six times for these pills, and they wouldn't know," he said.

In his letters, Mr. Marshall argued that EC is a form of abortion because it prevents implantation of a fertilized egg. He also claimed that its distribution violates state law, which requires that women seeking abortions receive information about the procedure and other alternatives and wait 24 hours before undergoing the procedure.

The board of trustees at James Madison University quickly responded to Mr. Marshall's letter. Last month, it banned the distribution of the morning-after pill on campus.

Mr. Marshall's efforts didn't get very far, however. Earlier this month, state Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, a Republican, ruled that the morning-after pill was not a form of abortion because it doesn't terminate an existing pregnancy. Mr. Kilgore's memo said each college's board of visitors should be responsible for deciding EC dispensation in campus clinics.

Nevertheless, Mr. Marshall vowed to stop the distribution. "I want the policy changed. Parents I've talked to are appalled at this," he said.

He then turned his attention to "SexFest 2003" at JMU. Mr. Marshall wrote a letter blasting Mr. Rose for not "providing better leadership" by allowing students to hold an event that included a simulation of the difficulty of putting on a condom while drunk.

Mr. Rose defended the April 26 event, saying it intended to teach students about safe sex.

Last week, Mr. Marshall asked to meet with Mr. Rose so they could "understand each other's principles." Mr. Rose has not yet responded to Mr. Marshall's request, and could not be reached for comment for this story because he is out of town.

Mr. Marshall was raised in Maryland as a blue-collar Democrat. He supported John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968. A year later, he was alarmed by Maryland's efforts to liberalize its abortion laws and wrote to Gov. Marvin Mandel in protest. He met his future wife, Cathy, at an anti-abortion organization meeting.

The liberal bent of George McGovern's failed 1972 presidential bid taught Mr. Marshall he was no Democrat. An unsuccessful independent bid for a Maryland House of Delegates seat in 1974 showed him the necessity of party moorings. He settled on the Republican Party in 1978, when he worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. Robert Dornan, California Republican.

Today, Mr. Marshall is a six-term state delegate, who is running for re-election this fall. He lives in Manassas with his wife and four of their five children. One son, Christopher, 19, was killed in November 2001 when the car he was in ran into a tractor-trailer that was parked on an interstate highway off-ramp.

A devout Catholic, Mr. Marshall said he often prays for guidance. He applies principles from his faith to his career, but he said he tries to make his point from informed logic rather than blind faith. "The Ten Commandments, thought by some to be suggestions, are for our common good," he said.

Mr. Marshall's recent challenges against the universities have been criticized by Democrats and college students. But he has stood firm on his convictions. He said he's only trying to limit the use of government money for "private pursuits."

"Students can't even fornicate without the help of the school nurse? That's ridiculous. I'm not saying we should get involved with what goes on in the bedroom. Just keep the government money out of it. Let them spend their beer money on it."

This article is based in part on wire service reports.

http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030517-114407-6056r.htm

=====

Pitfalls await Kilgore on way to the throne
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 18, 2003
Last updated: 11:29 PM

RICHMOND - Think coronation.

Jerry Kilgore might have been attending his own when he raked in $500,000 at a flag-festooned luncheon last week with the aid of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Two years out, the 41-year-old attorney general has overcome mountain twang and his far-southwest Virginia roots to emerge with a clear lock on the coveted GOP nomination for governor in 2005. That's no small feat given the party's taste for internecine breakdowns.

With Republican fortunes on the rise in Virginia and across the South, there's plenty of reason to think that an unfettered nomination can lead Kilgore straight to the governor's mansion. Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is a talented public servant, but on a couple of litmus tests -- gun control and the death penalty, for instance -- he comes up red when Virginia turns out blue.

Still, while the odds point to a Kilgore stroll, much can happen in two years, and even now, at least one cloud threatens Kilgore's cakewalk.

Republicans may be united on the nomination, but among themselves, they are not in full accord on either social or economic policy. Neither are Virginians overall. Some serious questions loom about the state's future, and to become governor, Kilgore must answer them to the satisfaction of a reasonably broad spectrum of voters.

Back in 1993, it is worth remembering, Democratic Attorney General Mary Sue Terry seemed a shoo-in for election as governor. But she faltered and fell when the specific ideas of her underdog opponent, George Allen, trumped her less-focused campaign.

The idea that has dominated Virginia Republican politics for the past six years is the notion that taxes are too high and government too bloated. While the message still has grass-roots appeal, a growing number of movers and shakers are worried about where that overriding focus is leaving state institutions.

Assuming they're right, a new message will be needed in 2005.

``What Virginia sorely lacks is a long-term strategic vision for the state that will lead us boldly into the future,'' said the pro-business group Virginia FREE last week, in the latest such lament. Releasing its annual evaluation of lawmakers, the organization was more critical than usual of the current crop of state leaders.

``Do we aspire to have an education system that is middle of the pack or in the top 10 percent nationally?'' it asked. ``Do we want a transportation system that intelligently addresses areas of major congestion . . . or is today's program adequate? Do we want to continue shifting costs in the health care arena by squeezing Medicaid reimbursements and covering the losses with higher health insurance premiums?''

This year's Virginia FREE ratings are also far less kind to some GOP lawmakers than in past years, and the switch is causing consternation in the Republican House caucus. ``Your caucus leadership will be pursing the matter in the coming days,'' promised an e-mail sent to caucus members last week.

But platitudes won't erase statistics that show Virginia is falling behind in its commitment to K-12 education, universities (see today's editorial), transportation, and other core governmental functions. Over time, there must be real answers to whether teachers can get pay raises, colleges can meet the demand for more than 30,000 new students in this decade, nursing homes can stay in business, and so forth.

Before the 2005 election, Gov. Mark Warner may alter the debate by putting forth a major education initiative.

Or, some Republicans may challenge their party to take a more progressive stance. Christopher Newport University President Paul Trible, a former U.S. senator, is weighing appeals to bring a pro-education message to the 2005 contest for lieutenant governor. For someone with his conservative credentials to weigh in on the side of beefing up institutions could bring a valuable new twist to the debate.

Meanwhile, with a formal campaign agenda still many months away, Kilgore emits regular signals that his moorings in the party's right wing do not leave him deaf to a larger audience. Forced to weigh in on whether so-called ``morning after'' emergency contraception constitutes abortion, the pro-life attorney general took the politically sane course in saying, ``no.''

Asked in an interview last week about the popular, anti-tax measure du jour -- state legislation capping hikes in local real estate rates -- he didn't flinch. ``I don't think that moves the ball any further,'' he said. ``We don't need to needlessly meddle in local government.''

Such reality-grounded politics ought to serve Kilgore well as he aims to turn last week's coronation into the real thing.

Margaret Edds is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. E-mail her at edds@richmond.infi.net.

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/print.cfm?story=54261&ran=197433

GMU halts drug handout

By Jon Ward
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A second Virginia university has stopped distributing emergency contraceptive pills as a result of inquiries by Delegate Robert G. Marshall, who has demanded more information from state-funded schools about the dissemination of the drug.

George Mason University became the second state school in Virginia to stop distributing ECPs since Mr. Marshall, Prince William Republican, first began his investigation into the matter in March. James Madison University's board of trustees voted April 18 to stop distributing ECPs after receiving a March 31 letter Mr. Marshall sent to several state-funded schools.

GMU had recently discovered they were distributing the pills, which are taken within 72 hours after intercourse to prevent conception, without a license to dispense, according to Maryann Braun, director of the campus health center.

"It came to our attention that we were doing something here that we maybe should not have been doing," Ms. Braun said. She estimated that GMU stopped giving out the pills, also known as morning-after pills, about a month ago. The school continues to write prescriptions for ECPs to students.

Ms. Braun said she could not answer how long ago George Mason started distributing the pills. It has been common practice to give them to students since she arrived at the school two years ago, she said.

James Madison's decision sparked controversy among the student body, which collected more than 2,700 signatures in support of a student government bill asking the board to reverse its decision. That bill will be presented to the board at its next meeting on June 6.

The JMU board's decision and the corresponding debate, which centers around the highly-controversial question of when life begins, has drawn a lot of attention from the media and the public.

Two groups against sexual assault and domestic violence canceled events at JMU early in May to protest the board's decision, but later last month, the Family Foundation of Virginia held a banquet at the school in the board's honor and presented the board a Courage in Leadership award.

Parents and alumni who favor and oppose the board's move also have called the university to express their opinion, said JMU spokesman Fred Hilton.

Mr. Marshall, a devout Catholic, is opposed to ECPs because he believes they are a form of abortion. Proponents of the pill have argued that ECPs are not abortive, like the drug RU-486, but rather prevent conception by stopping an egg from being released so sperm can't fertilize it, or by preventing a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus and growing.

Mr. Marshall is determined to stop state universities from distributing and prescribing ECPs. He has written numerous letters, asked for meetings with school officials, and challenged "Sexfest 2003," a sex-education event at JMU.

He also has agreed to a September debate at the University of Virginia, sponsored by the student newspaper, and said fellow Republican Kathy J. Byron of Campbell County will introduce a bill next year to prohibit schools from giving ECPs to students.

"I'm not going to stop until all these things are off the campus," he said. "The parents in my district have been uniformly opposed to this practice and were shocked that this was going on ...I got a phone call from one woman who said she was taking JMU out of her will. She was livid."

On May 29, Mr. Marshall sent a 16-question Freedom of Information Request to GMU, Virginia Tech University, Old Dominion University and Longwood University, and a modified request with fewer questions to JMU, the University of Virginia and Radford University.

"By law they have to respond. If they don't, I can take them to court," Mr. Marshall said.

Only Longwood had responded as of yesterday, according to a spokesman, but spokesmen for other schools said they planned to respond within a week. UVA and Virginia Tech did not return phone calls.

At GMU, Ms. Braun said she had not heard of anyone considering legal action against the school for distributing ECPs without a pharmaceutical license. The only person with possible intent to do so, she said, is Mr. Marshall.

"What's he trying to do? I cannot imagine this is the most important issue on his plate," she said.

Mr. Marshall said, "Giving women a powerful drug that can cause early abortion and not telling them is a very important issue to a lot of people. And why universities should be involved in this is another question that a number of my colleagues will be taking up next year."

http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20030603-103139-6046r.htm

Jun 07, 2003

JMU tables race motion

It would remove racial identity from application

BY CALVIN R. TRICE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

INSIDE

George Mason University stops dispensing "morning-after" pills. Page B2..

HARRISONBURG - A motion to remove racial identification from student application forms was tabled yesterday by the James Madison University board of visitors.

Also, the board did not reconsider its decision to stop dispensing emergency contraceptive "morning-after" pills from the campus health center. [HOORAY!] The decision drew overwhelming opposition from students.

The motion on race was introduced near the end of the meeting by Charles H. Cunningham of Fairfax, who was attending his last meeting after serving eight years on the board.

Removing race from the forms would be "an important move toward a color-blind society," he said.

His proposal, which in effect would have removed racial consideration from JMU's admissions process, was somewhat similar to the action taken, and then reversed, by Virginia Tech's governing board this year.

Tech's board originally wanted to remove race as a consideration in admissions and hiring.

At yesterday's meeting, JMU President Linwood Rose and several board members cautioned against making such a move before the board receives advice from Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore and before an expected decision on affirmative action at the University of Michigan from the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We haven't done any administrative preparation to address that question," Rose said.

"Whatever the ruling is in the Michigan case doesn't matter to me," Cunningham said in making his motion. "What matters to me is what's right, not what's legal."

Board member Charles H. Foster Jr. of Richmond also reminded fellow members how they took the April 18 vote on emergency contraception with little notice or deliberation.

That action, which was not on the agenda, "caused a bit of a stir," Foster said. He warned the board not to act in such a hasty manner again.

According to JMU, Cunningham first proposed the motion on race in January, but a vote was delayed then so the board could receive advice from the attorney general's office - which it has yet to receive.

Yesterday, board members voted 9-4 to table the motion on race. Eleven of the board's 15 members were present, and two participated by teleconference.

Also at yesterday's meeting, Foster said the minutes from the April board meeting erroneously recorded his vote as being in favor of the pill ban.

He had the record of April's meeting changed to reflect that he voted against stopping the sale of the pill.

The switch changed the vote on the decision from 8-5 to 7-6, which does not affect the result.

At a morning meeting of the board's Education and Student Life Committee, JMU student leader Levar Stoney urged visitors to reverse the decision on the pill, called Plan B.

Stoney is a rising senior from Yorktown who will be president of the Student Government Association.

Within days of the board's April vote, students collected 2,714 signatures on a petition to ask for a reversal. The petition backed a Student Government Senate statement, passed 55-6, that opposed the decision.

Committee Chairman Mark D. Obenshain, who moved for the "morning-after" pill vote in April, did not bring the issue for a vote at the subsequent meeting of the full board.

"This is an issue which was fully vetted at the last meeting," Obenshain said during a break in the regular meeting.

"It's received considerable attention statewide and otherwise over the past month, and I haven't heard anything that's personally changed my view," he said.

Obenshain, a Harrisonburg lawyer, is a Republican candidate for the Virginia Senate. The JMU board voted on the pill after it received a letter from Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, who criticized the school for dispensing the pill on campus.

Emergency contraception pills are intended primarily to prevent the fertilization of eggs within days after sex. But they can also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Obenshain and other abortion foes say the drugs can terminate a pregnancy.

Letters, calls and e-mail addressed to the JMU Board of Visitors and administration have expressed almost unanimous opposition to the emergency contraception vote, said school spokesman Fred Hilton.

The opinions have come from parents, students and alumni, he said.

Obenshain and Paul J. Chiapparone, of Plano, Texas, also are leaving the board. [Uh, oh, here come Mark Warner's people]

Contact Calvin R. Trice at (540) 574-9977 or ctrice@timesdispatch.com

RTD

==========

Jun 07, 2003

GMU halts pill distribution

But its doctors still write prescriptions

BY PAUL BRADLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

FAIRFAX - George Mason University has become the second Virginia university to stop dispensing emergency contraceptive pills at its on-campus health clinic.

But health-clinic doctors are still writing prescriptions for the drug, which can be filled elsewhere.

In addition, GMU is seeking authority from the Virginia Board of Pharmacy to resume dispensing the drug at the health clinic, said GMU Chief of Staff Tom Hennessey.

Hennessey said the GMU health center stopped dispensing the so-called "morning-after pill" several weeks ago, after state Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, wrote the university and several other state-supported schools demanding information about the dispensing of the drug.

The drugs are taken within 72 hours of unprotected sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancy.

Marshall's letter led to an April 18 vote by the James Madison University board of visitors to stop dispensing the pills at its on-campus health center. Students protesting the step have asked the board to reconsider.

At GMU, Marshall's letter led to an administrative review of the university's policies regarding all prescription medications dispensed at its health center. The review raised questions about whether doctors could legally dispense such medications on-site, Hennessey said.

"As long as a physician has the authority to write prescriptions, they can also dispense drugs on-site," he said. "But we thought we were close to the edge, and we wanted to resolve any questions."

As a result, the GMU health clinic is now barred from dispensing any prescription medication, including the emergency contraceptive pills. Prescriptions are still being written, but students must get them filled at an off-campus pharmacy.

GMU is seeking a license from the pharmacy board so the health clinic can resume dispensing prescription drugs on-site, Hennessey said. The clinic sells the drugs at cost, often resulting in a significant savings for students, he said.

Unchanged by GMU's step is its policy of requiring a woman who wants the emergency contraceptive pill to submit to a pregnancy test when asking for it. If the test is positive, Hennessey said, the doctor will not write the prescription. Currently available by prescription only, the drug does not work if a woman is pregnant.

Marshall, a devout Catholic and vocal opponent of abortion, contends the pills are a form of abortion. But several major medical organizations disagree.

The drug, sold under the name Plan B, contains high doses of birth-control hormones. It prevents conception by delaying ovulation, inhibiting the fertilization of an egg, or by interfering with the implantation of the egg on the uterine wall.

Critics such as Marshall contend that keeping a fertilized egg from becoming implanted in the uterus is a form of abortion.

Marshall and his legislative allies have vowed to bring the issue of on-campus prescription and distribution of the drugs before the General Assembly next year.

But the matter by then could be a nonissue. The federal Food and Drug Administration, which first approved the drug in 1999, is considering making it available over-the-counter, meaning it could be purchased at any drugstore. A decision is expected early next year.

Contact Paul Bradley at (703) 548-8758 or pbradley@timesdispatch.com

RTD

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.