"A few weeks back we chided Planned Parenthood for raising a false alarm with a new advertising campaign.

```Think Virginia won't vote away your birth control pills? Think again,'' says one Planned Parenthood billboard.

``Think you have the freedom to choose contraception? VA says think again,'' reads another.

C'mon, we argued. No way a majority of Virginia lawmakers would deny birth control pills to women.

We still think that's a true statement. For one thing, the U.S. Supreme Court forbids states from banning contraceptives.

But recent events at James Madison University affirm another truth: Some legislators would gladly deprive some women of birth control measures in some circumstances. The Planned Parenthood warning, it turns out, is not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Responding to a complaint by Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, the standard-bearer of anti-abortionists at the General Assembly, the JMU board voted to stop dispensing emergency contraception to students. Marshall's complaint is that the so-called ``morning-after pill'' regimen works, at times, by preventing the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.

This, to Marshall, is an abortion, since he believes, contrary to the widely accepted medical definition of pregnancy, that life begins when egg and sperm are joined, rather than when they are implanted.

``For the University to be in any way associated with semantic manipulations to facilitate the acceptance of drugs that can cause early abortion of unwitting JMU co-eds is most troubling,'' wrote Marshall, who also conveyed his sentiments to the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and other Virginia schools.

Marshall warned that, under a recent parental-consent law, university officials are risking a $2,500 civil penalty if they fail to get the approval of a girl's parents before facilitating this ``abortion.''

To carry Marshall's complaint to its logical conclusion, however, the officials are taking the same risk by dispensing birth control pills, period. That's because ``emergency contraception'' and regular contraception from birth control pills work in precisely the same ways. The morning-after dosage is simply higher.

Marshall acknowledges the fact, although he says the difference in intention makes morning-after contraception worse. His preference would be for campus pharmacies to get out of the birth-control business altogether. While legislators don't have the authority to ban contraceptives generally, they can and should refuse to subsidize them on college campuses, he says.

The delegate, who gained statewide notice a few years back by leading the drive to keep Hugh Finn on artificial life support over the objections of his wife, is opposed to human interference with what he views as divine processes. But Marshall's moral judgments and, frankly, extreme views about the genesis of life ought not dictate family-planning law in the commonwealth.

Many young women take birth control pills for reasons that have nothing to do with sexual intercourse. Many others are properly taking precautions to prevent an unwanted pregnancy and, perhaps, a genuine abortion. So long as the state elects to curb college costs by dispensing drugs at reduced prices, broadly used reproductive medicines ought to be part of the mix.

When he arrived in Richmond a decade ago, Marshall was on the political fringe. Now, the Republican Party has tacked so far to the right, particularly in the House of Delegates, that he is in the mainstream. Not every woman is in danger of losing birth control as a result, but it is alarming that some are." (Editorial, The Virginian-Pilot, May 4, 2003)

Note: For related articles, see also Billboards Counter Anti-Birth Control Campaign , Nearly Half (40%) of Virginia's State Senators Oppose the Use of Birth Control Pills , James Madison University to Drop 'Morning After' Pill , and James Madison Internet Name Taken Over by Anti-abortion Site.