Plan B: Under the Counter
In a surprise decision, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on May 6 that it would not allow the “morning-after pill” to be sold over the counter (CT, April, p. 21). The FDA, in rejecting the recommendation of two of its advisory committees, said teenagers might not use the drug safely without the guidance of a physician. Pro-life advocates say the drug, also called Plan B, can cause abortions by blocking implantation of an embryo.
251 Massacred
Vietnam continues persecuting Christians and others in the country’s Central Highlands. According to International Christian Concern, Vietnamese authorities have massacred 251 people in nine villages, and the death toll may go higher. The government has cracked down on Montagnards, who are largely Christian, after demonstrations in 2001 for greater religious freedom and against seizure of their lands. More than 200 Montagnards died in attacks over the Easter weekend.
Jesus in Every Home
The Jesus Video Project America is seeking to distribute copies of the Jesus video to all 75 million homes in the United States by 2010. So far, the ministry has placed videos in 20 million homes. Distribution in three states—Hawaii, South Carolina, and Alabama—is done. The organization (www.jesusvideo.org) has just released an expanded-content DVD.
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Related Elsewhere:
Christianity Today articles on the morning-after pill include:
Weblog: FDA Panel Recommends Over-the-counter ‘Morning After’ Pill (Dec. 17, 2003)
Plan B (for Bad) | Christians fight to keep ‘morning-after pill’ under the counter. (March 10, 2004)
Mourning the Morning-After Pill | Ever since the introduction of the birth-control pill, “liberated” Americans have hankered after still more spontaneity: they have wanted a “morning-after pill” to baby-proof their relationships. (April 7, 1997)
Other articles on the morning-after pill include:
FDA Rejects OTC Morning-After Pill | Women’s groups are accusing the Bush administration of putting politics before science in rejecting over-the-counter sales of morning-after birth control, even as the agency stressed Friday that it will reconsider that decision if given more data. -Associate Press (May 6, 2004)
AMA Opposes Stance on Morning-After Pill | The American Medical Association voiced its support for over-the-counter sales of morning-after birth control, saying the Food and Drug Administration was wrong to reject such sales and urging doctors to write advance prescriptions.—Associated Press (June 15, 2004)
More persecution-watch from International Christian Concern is available from its website, including a press release about the Vietnamese Montagnards.
The Jesus Video Project has more information about its goal to distribute the Jesus video to every home in the United States.
