Contact: State Director Peggy Hamill or Director of Legislative Affairs Matt Sande
(262) 796-1111, (414) 416-0489 or info@prolifewisconsin.org

Bill Blocks UW System from Providing Morning-After Pill
Dispensing “emergency contraception” not the proper role of
public university educators, says Pro-Life Wisconsin

Pro-Life Wisconsin strongly supports legislation that would prohibit the University of Wisconsin System (UWS) from advertising, prescribing or dispensing emergency contraception.

Authored by Representative Dan LeMahieu (R-Oostburg), the legislation was prompted by a series of recent ads published in campus newspapers by the UW-Madison health services division encouraging students to “prepare” for spring break by accessing emergency contraception. The ads advised students to call University Health Services to get their prescription over the phone.

“Not only can so-called ‘emergency contraception’ kill a tiny preborn person, but it can also harm women,” said Peggy Hamill, state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. “Health side-effects include such life-threatening conditions as ectopic pregnancy and blood clot formation. Emergency contraception also offers no protection against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including AIDS. The UW System is literally assaulting its student body by recklessly promoting this dangerous, abortion-causing drug regimen. Thankfully, Representative LeMahieu is stepping up to the plate to stop them.”

The legislation, which is currently circulating for co-sponsorship, specifically targets “emergency contraception,” defined as a hormonal medication or combination of medications that is administered only after sexual intercourse for the post-coital control of fertility. The Pill and other routine hormonal birth control methods are administered before sexual intercourse, and are therefore not subject to the prohibitions in the bill.

“It’s not the role of our state higher educational system to equip young college students for promiscuous sex, especially in the unpredictable and risky environment of college spring break,” said Matt Sande, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s Director of Legislative Affairs. “Nowhere in the UW System Mission Statement do we read, either explicitly or implicitly, the provision of the morning-after pill, or any birth control drug for that matter, as a System purpose. Such ‘family planning’ issues are not properly under the purview of our public university educators.”

Also known as the morning-after pill, emergency contraception is basically two high doses of the birth control pill taken within 72 hours following sexual intercourse. It can work in three ways: to suppress ovulation, to inhibit the mobility of sperm, and, if fertilization occurs, to irritate the lining of the uterus so that a newly conceived child (human embryo) is unable to implant in the womb, thus starving and dying. This last action is chemical abortion.

“Importantly, there are no long-term studies to show whether women will be permanently damaged, or risk such diseases as cancer, from these chemicals being given in such high doses,” said Hamill. “There is nothing safe about emergency contraception, neither for the woman or her unborn child.”

The legislation’s prohibition also extends to persons advertising, dispensing, or prescribing emergency contraceptive drugs on UWS property. It is modeled after a 2004 Virginia bill that passed the House of Delegates.

-END-