Conservatives Blast Policy Requiring Military Bases to Stock Morning-After Pill

By Nathan Black, Christian Post Reporter Monday, February 08, 2010

Conservative groups have denounced the recent decision requiring that all U.S. military bases worldwide carry the controversial contraceptive pill, Plan B.

"In the last year we have witnessed the Obama Administration move from the status quo of abortion as legal and available in health care plans to aggressively promoting U.S. government funded abortions," noted Jeanne Monahan, director of Family Research Council's Center for Human Dignity.

Though Plan B has been available at some military hospitals, the new Department of Defense policy makes it a requirement for military hospitals and health clinics to stock the "morning-after" pill.

The decision was based on a recommendation by the Pentagon's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee.

Pro-choice advocates have hailed the new policy, saying it provides women in uniform with "basic health care," as Nancy Keenan of NARAL Pro-Choice America stated.

But pro-life groups are opposed, arguing that Plan B can prevent implantation and is thus tantamount to abortion.

"We can all agree that there is a huge difference between preventing and destroying human life. And women in uniform deserve to know the truth about their medications," Monahan commented Friday.

And with military health facilities now being required to carry the pill, Monahan contends the policy would be a violation of the conscience rights of military personnel who have moral objections to providing it.

It would further violate the conscience rights of American taxpayers who support military operations, the FRC director argues.

The decision is the latest during the Obama administration to reverse pro-life policies implemented by George W. Bush's administration. In the first few months of taking office last year, President Obama signed a repeal of the Mexico City Policy, which prevented taxpayer dollars from going toward international organizations involved in performing or promoting abortions abroad, as well as a reversal of a ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. His administration has also proposed rescinding the "conscience" rule, which upholds the rights of doctors and nurses to refuse a medical service on religious or moral grounds.

Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan clarified to CNN, however, that the latest decision regarding Plan B was not prompted by any direction from the Obama administration or the secretary of defense. It was a clinical decision, Lapan said.

Nevertheless, conservative Washingtonian Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America said the military should be focusing on "discipline and proper behavior – because lives depend on it – not promoting risky behavior," as reported by LifeSiteNews.com.