UNC update; free speech; ella

There’s a ton to report today, so I apologize if my comments aren’t as in-depth as usual.

1) The immediate issue regarding North Carolina public university students being forced to buy abortion coverage has been resolved. Mere days after Students for Life of America sounded the alarm, the university provided a way for pro-life students to opt out. However, SFLA remains concerned about the possibility that tax money will fund abortion through the plan.

2) All charges against David Avignone have been dropped. Avignone is a pro-life student who was arrested under the same circumstances as Joe Holland.

3) Washington, D.C. officials have finally recognized that a disputed sidewalk in front of an abortion clinic is, in fact, public property. Pro-life advocates are now working to bring down the fence so that sidewalk counseling and peaceful demonstrations can resume as soon as possible. (Backstory here.)

4) The FDA has approved ella, a “morning-after pill” which is advertised as working up to five days after sex– two days more than its competitor, Plan B. When Plan B hit the market, pro-life groups voiced concern that it could work by killing the zygote after fertilization but before implantation. The language of the debate was muddied, with supporters of Plan B defining pregnancy as implantation to birth rather than conception to birth.

This time around, pro-life groups are arguing that ella may be abortifacient even by the opposition’s definition of pregnancy. That is, it might work by killing post-implantation. Is ella actually RU-486 lite? I’m not medically qualified to say. But it’s at least something that the FDA ought to address, so that pro-life women don’t accidentally take an abortion drug because the label says it’s purely contraceptive.