Bush Administration Rule Stops Rape Victims Getting Plan B "Morning After" Pill

(MoneyWatch)  A federal rule set to go into affect Jan. 18 will allow doctors and hospitals to withhold the Plan B "morning after" pill from rape victims if they so choose. The rule is designed to protect medical staff whose religious beliefs put even theoretical foetuses ahead of the needs of women who have been attacked. Plan B is a pill marketed by Barr Pharmaceuticals which acts as a contraceptive device if taken after sex. It does not cause abortions. Nor does it interfere with existing pregnancies.

The regulation threatens to overturn state rules that require doctors to offer the treatment to patients who have been attacked. Connecticut, which has such a rule, plans to fight the feds in court.

The move is the latest in the sorry history of Plan B, which has been politicized from the start by Republicans. Illinois pharmacists have gone to court to overturn a rule forcing them to dispense the medicine according to doctors' and patients' decisions, not their own moral code.

Back in 2005, it emerged that Plan B's approval by the FDA -- which stopped it from being an over-the-counter contraceptive -- was made not for scientific reasons but because federal officials had bizarre, squeamish views about girls and under-age sex. They believed its presence on shelves would encourage sex.

The Obama administration could overturn the new rule but that may take 12 months.