For 4th time, pill measure hits floor

Panel to consider contraception bill

John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 20, 2006 at midnight

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LITTLETON - Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, has pushed three times for legislation that would make it easier for a woman to obtain emergency contraception.

Three times she has failed.

This year, Boyd is optimistic about House Bill 1212, which would allow, but not force, pharmacists in the state to write a prescription for a woman seeking emergency contraception without the consent of her doctor.

The three-term Democrat said it would primarily serve women who get pregnant as a result of their birth control failing and who don't have time to get an emergency contraceptive prescription from their doctor.

The medication, which contains elevated levels of the same hormone found in birth control pills, must be taken within 72 hours after intercourse to be effective.

Boyd emphasized that the bill is limited to emergency contraceptives like Plan B, which aim to prevent pregnancies rather than terminate them.

"It's not about ending a pregnancy, it's about preventing a pregnancy," Boyd told reporters at Gem Pharmacy in Littleton on Sunday.

The controversial medication RU-486, which induces an abortion shortly after conception, is specifically prohibited in Boyd's bill as one of the emergency contraceptives a pharmacist could prescribe.

Boyd said allowing women easy access to emergency contraceptives would result in a substantial decrease in abortions in Colorado.

She said Washington state has had a 30 percent decrease in abortions since the state implemented a similar law a few years ago.

But Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, who plans to vote against the bill, said he isn't convinced that Plan B and other medications are as innocuous as Boyd makes them out to be.

He said the fact that the drug can stop an embryo from attaching to a woman's uterus is tantamount to abortion. Many people in the anti-abortion movement claim life begins the moment an egg is fertilized.

"It is very similar to a morning-after pill in terms of a medication that can be abortive," he said. "They try to gloss over that."

The drug's maker, Barr Pharmaceuticals, acknowledges that Plan B can affect fertilized eggs but that the drug usually does its work before that point.

Lundberg also has trouble with the bill's overall issue of pharmacists prescribing drugs without a doctor's consent, calling it a safety concern.

The House Health and Human Services Committee takes up the matter in a first hearing at 1:30 p.m. today.

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