From the SFLA Blog

As FDA Advisory Committee Empowers Abusers with Recommendation of Over-the-Counter Birth Control, Young Girls Now More Vulnerable, says SFLA’s Kristan Hawkins 

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Kristi Hamrick - 10 May 2023

WASHINGTON D.C. (05-10-2023) – Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins called an FDA Advisory Committee’s recommendation for over-the-counter distribution of contraception “a feckless decision that empowers abusers.”  

Hawkins made the following statement: “The abortion lobby has trained many in our culture to see pregnancy as the enemy of women, ignoring all the factors at play when you abandon young women with the sole message of ‘don’t be pregnant.’ Pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion. And importantly, over the counter birth control and Online, No Test Distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills puts the power in the hands of abusers and sex traffickers.  

“This reckless step also exposes young women to the growing nightmare of sexually transmitted diseases. Today, one in four Americans has an incurable STD, and the CDC reports that half of new STD cases are among young people who are 15 to 24. You would think that medical professionals would want to get time with a group of people so vulnerable to disease and peer pressure, and who are too often medically uninformed. Instead, the advisory committee voted to ignore their responsibilities to patients’ overall needs.” 

Prior to the decision today, SFLA put out the following statement:   

“Making it easy for abusers to cover up their sexual abuse and statutory rape crimes with Online, No Test Chemical Abortion Pills or over-the-counter birth control sales is negligent public policy. The FDA ignores the impact of their policies on minors, including failing to show what the exact long-term impact of such early exposure on young women might be. It’s astounding that an agency established to keep women safe when using any substances is more interested in a quick sale than patient safety. President Biden’s FDA must stop prioritizing the goals of the abortion lobby and put women and young girls first. As I travel on campuses across the country, I find that young women – both pro-life and pro-choice – agree that hormonal birth control causes women many terrible problems. Outside of Washington D.C., young women are very worried about such drugs. As a mother, I also am offended by the FDA’s reported decision in light of the current epidemic of sexually transmitted disease.  

“But the bottom line is that there should be bipartisan agreement that making it easier for predators to hide their sexual abuse of minors is bad public policy.”  

In 2011, then President Barack Obama opposed making the morning after pill available over the counter. As the AP reported, he said that “it was just common sense to keep girls under the age of 17 from being able to buy a morning-after contraceptive pill off a drugstore shelf. Citing his own two daughters, Obama said: ‘I think most parents would probably feel the same way.’” 

Hawkins said, “Most parents do agree that reckless distribution of certain products is not in the best interests of children who need to hear from someone other than a salesman or abuser. The FDA should care more about the people who receive a product that the people who want to sell it.”  

For interviews, contact Kristi Hamrick at [email protected] 

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Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), make up the nation’s largest pro-life youth organization and a political and policy operation engaging people of all ages. Together they work to end abortion — the human rights issue of our day — and provide political, legal, and community support for women and their children, born and preborn. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, SFLA has more than 1,400 groups on middle, high school, college, university, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. SFLA creates strategy, policy, and programming to connect those most targeted for abortion with people ready to help and builds a framework for political engagement on their behalf. SFLA and SFLAction have more conversations with those most targeted by the abortion industry than any other pro-life outreach in the world, reaching more than 2 million people across social media platforms each week and engaging in approximately 100,000 digital conversations per month. Over more than 16 years, President Kristan Hawkins has grown SFLAction/SFLA into an $18 million organization preparing for a Post-Roe America. 

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