A Big Win For Plan B

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"You have to give credit or blame to the Governor of Illinois," says Ed Martin, an attorney for Americans United for Life, a law firm specializing in antiabortion advocacy. Martin says Governor Rod Blagojevich's emergency order on Plan B, later made permanent by the Illinois legislature, mobilized support for Martin's efforts to pass rights-of-conscience laws, giving pharmacists the right to refuse to dispense Plan B or other drugs to which they are morally opposed. Four states have passed such laws, and eight more are considering them. Martin says the political momentum among his allies in the antiabortion movement is shifting toward laws passed in Mississippi and South Dakota that strictly limit access to abortion, and bills for expanded conscience clauses in those states are unlikely to pass. The higher-profile abortion fights, he says, "sometimes suck the oxygen out of the room."

Plan B's backers, despite their recent victories, say they have little hope of grabbing the real prize, over-the-counter access, anytime soon. An FDA ruling could make Plan B as easily available as condoms, but with the November midterm elections looming, a decision on such a politically charged issue looks unlikely before then.