'Morning after' pills at USI opposed

By JOE ATKINSON Courier & Press staff writer 464-7450 or atkinson@evansville.net

Female students at the University of Southern Indiana now have the option of using emergency contraceptive pills - a decision that has sparked the ire of local anti-abortion activists.

The pills, better known as "morning after" pills, are available to students through the USI Student Health Center, said Barry Schonberger, USI's dean of students. By virtue of a contract with the university, the health center is staffed by Deaconness employees.

The decision to distribute the pills, which cost the user about $30, has been a controversial one. Anti-abortion activists believe the pill is equivalent to an early abortion, said Mike Fichter, director of Vanderburgh County Right to Life. He said he is disappointed in the decision from his alma mater to allow distribution of the drug on campus.

"This is a very bad decision by USI," Fichter said. "Many women will take this drug under the mistaken assumption that it is a contraceptive, but because it takes place right after conception, it is actually a very early abortion."

Schonberger said the university did not decide to offer the drug. University officials defer to the contracted health officials on medical decisions, he explained.

"The university considers the relationship between the medical provider and our students to be a personal relationship," Schonberger said, "We really leave decisions of health care to those medical providers to meet the best interests of their patients."

USI is the first area university to sanction use of the pill, which thins the lining of the uterus so a fertilized egg will have difficulty attaching itself.

Julie Yunker, a registered nurse at the University of Evansville, said UE had no plans of ever offering the pill to students. Part of that decision, she said, involved the moral question raised by anti-abortion activists. At USI, however, that decision is left between the physician and patient, Schonberger said.

"Those are discussions that any physician, in discussing what the options are with a patient, must deal with," he said. "Physicians, in addition to making medical decisions, are on a regular basis counseling individuals on issues (like this)."

The university's student newspaper, The Shield, reported about the drug in its Nov. 29 issue. Its article said the pill "was not an abortion method, but a form of emergency birth control."

That is untrue, Fichter said, because anti-abortion groups believe life begins at conception.

"We believe (life) begins immediately at conception, which can occur after intercourse, and this drug ends that life," Fichter said. "That's why we are opposed to it."

They plan to voice that opposition, too, he said.

"We will be informing many of our own community about this development and asking them to make their feelings known to USI," he said. "We have a very broad core of support, and I'm sure we have plenty of USI graduates, including myself, who will not be happy about this decision."

December 5, 2001