Following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision to allow the Plan B pill to be made available without a prescription to women 18 and over, Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, offers the following statement:

I express profound disagreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision to make the "morning-after pill" available as an over-the-counter drug to women 18 and older. If a child has already been conceived this drug alters the woman's uterus, preventing pregnancy from taking its natural course. Consequently, it is an abortifacient which causes the destruction of a human life.

This action will ultimately hurt women who are being falsely led to believe that these pills are solely contraceptive in nature. It has the potential to physically harm women and destroy innocent human life. There is a five times greater risk of life-threatening ectopic pregnancy with the Plan B pill, according to the drug's new packaging insert.

I strongly urge the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider this decision to make easily available a drug, one of whose purposes it is to destroy innocent human life.

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