Prompted by a letter from Rep. Robert Marshall, R-Manassas, James Madison University's Board of Visitors voted Friday to prohibit the distribution of emergency contraception at its Harrisonburg campus student health center.
Popularly known as the "morning after pill," the drug currently prescribed at JMU consists of an especially strong dose of the hormones that constitute ordinary birth control pills. When taken within 72 hours of intercourse, the drug is 60 to 95 percent effective at preventing pregnancy.
JMU's student health center has offered emergency contraception to students since 1995, and has distributed an estimated 400 doses per year, JMU spokesperson Fred Hilton said.
In his letter to JMU President Linwood H. Rose, Marshall questioned the FDA's classification of emergency contraception as a contraceptive rather than an abortive drug.
"The food and drug administration has been run by abortion zealots and population control advocates," he said.
Because he said he believes the FDA classification is inaccurate, Marshall, who opposes abortion, said Virginia institutions of higher education should not provide the pill to their students.
"Virginia universities should have no business associating themselves with abortion -- period," Marshall said.
Christine Peterson, Director of Gynecology at the University Student Health Center, said the drug does not induce abortions.
"Emergency contraception is not the same as the abortion pill," Peterson said. "It does not cause abortions in the scientific viewpoint."
Ultimately, Hilton said, the majority of Board members agreed the drug was abortive despite the FDA's classification.
Marshall's letter also prompted the Board to examine whether taxpayer or student-activities fee funds were being used to defray the cost of the drug for students. Students currently pay $15 to purchase a dose of the drug from the school's health center.
"The total cost of the pill is paid by the student," Hilton said.
Some JMU students are expressing concerns that the Board's prohibition will lead to decreased availability of contraceptive options.
"There are limited resources [to obtain emergency contraception] in Harrisonburg that are available to JMU students," said sophomore Education student Kristine Schnebel, who serves as an at-large senator in JMU's student senate as well as the internal affairs director for JMU's student government association. "Now that they have passed this I don't feel students will easily be able to access" the drug, she said.
Obliging students to obtain the drug from commercial pharmacies also may lead to increased costs. According to literature distributed by the University Student Health Center, "the cost of emergency contraception at community pharmacies varies, but is generally $20-$40."
Schnebel said she fears further action from the Board.
"I don't think people realize that this could possibly be gone altogether," she said.
Subsequent to their decision to prohibit distribution of the drug, members of the Board sent a letter to Attorney General Jerry Kilgore's office, asking about the legality of prohibiting school health center doctors from prescribing the drug.
Peterson said she hopes the University's own Board will not pass a similar resolution.
"I would be concerned if [the Board] did because it's not a reasonable request of the Board of Visitors to direct medical care," she said.
The University Student Health Center has provided emergency contraception to students since 1988, Peterson said.
"We are quite certain we are preventing a large number of unplanned pregnancies and therefore and preventing a large number of abortions," she said.
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