Pro-life groups suffer High Court setback over killer pill

BY SIMON MARTELL!
PRO-LIFE groups suffered a huge set-back last week when a High Court Judge ruled that
the abortion-inducing morning after pill could be bought without prescription.
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) which brought the case against the Government after it amended the drug licensing laws in December 2000 to allow the drug to be sold condemned the decision.
"It is a sorry day for justice when the courts fail to protect unborn life at its most vulnerable," said Paul Tully, General Secretary of SPUC.
The presiding judge, Mr Justice Munby, was the defending barrister in the case of Tony Bland, the football fan severely brain-damaged in the Hillsborough disaster whose family had applied to terminate his life.
A major concern of the prolife group is the way the drug has been presented as a substitute for the Pill, marketed as "emergency contraception".
"This case has been about trying to stop the systematic deception of women who have been told that the morning-after pill is simply a contraception," said Mr Tully.
"What the Government, the drug company and the proabortion lobby have not been able to deny is that the early developing human embryo is killed by this drug."
Meanwhile another major pro-life group, Life, claimed that thousands have joined their campaign to boycott the supermarket giant, Tesco, on similar ethical grounds.
Tesco is dispensing the morning-after pill free of charge to young women at some of its stores in North Somerset.
"This pilot-project ignores the health risks surrounding the morning-after pill. The latter is a very powerful drug. It is the equivalent of at least six contraceptive pills," said the Life spokeswoman, Julie du Plessis.
She cited a case, reported 10 days previously in The Times, of a teenager who developed deep-vein thrombosis in her leg after taking the Pill and died from a massive blood clot in her lungs.
Referring to the judgement in the High Court, Ms du Plessis said: "We are disappointed by the ruling and the judge's insistence that pregnancy doesn't start at fertilisation. Common sense tells us this is untrue."
Although their central concern in the High Court case was the right to life of the embryo in the early stages, SPUC has also argued that making the morning-after pill so widely available is simply encouraging women to be more promiscuous.
Mr Tully said: "We were surprised by the support, sympathy and appreciation we received from the public. Even some of those who were against us said they respected our intentions.
Depending on the legal and financial situation, SPUC hopes to appeal.
The court was due to decide on costs after The Catholic Herald went to press.