USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) - Bishops' Office Files Comments with FDA Against Over-The-Counter "Emergency Contraception"

Bishops' Office Files Comments with FDA Against Over-The-Counter "Emergency Contraception"

WASHINGTON (December 5, 2003) --The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has urged the Food and Drug administration to reject a proposal to switch the status of emergency contraceptives from prescription to over-the-counter.

The FDA recently announced a meeting of the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee and the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs, December 16, to consider a proposal to make Plan B, or levonorgestrel-only "emergency contraception" ("EC"), available without a prescription. The agency invited written comments.
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The USCCB, through its Office of General Counsel, filed comments against the proposal December 5. They said, in part:
"The FDA has no mandate to promote and facilitate ways of preventing pregnancy that may cause the death of developing human life already conceived.
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Making EC available over-the-counter will reverse the legal and medical trend
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toward greater recognition and protection of human embryonic life, by making
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chemical agents that can destroy life so easily obtainable."
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Moreover, the comments continued, because the drug has been advertised and promoted as a "contraceptive," countless women are being misled.
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The comments noted that making "emergency contraception" available without a prescription would eliminate critical clinical monitoring and follow-up to address the risk of ectopic pregnancy, a potentially fatal complication. It would also make the drugs available to minor girls without the involvement of their parents or a family physician.
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According to Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Director of Planning and Information for the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, "women are being misled about this drug, and putting it on the shelves of a drugstore would only exacerbate the problem. This proposal would put their health at risk and remove important protection for minor girls. And it would further coarsen the culture to the dignity of early human life."
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"A review of these considerations should lead the FDA to reject this reckless experiment," she said.
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To read the comments in their entirety, visit http://www.usccb.org/ogc/ruleind.shtml