October 11, 2000
Call for a halt to Ontario morning after pill pilot project

The Birth Control Pill is once again the centre of controversy. A study at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Centre in Rochester, Minnesota concluded that women who have a strong family history of breast cancer and who took the higher dose estrogen pill prior to 1975 have a 3.3 times higher risk of breast cancer.

On September 8, 2000, it was reported that the Ontario Women's Health Council will receive $373,000 to pilot a two-year research project to distribute the morning after pill to women without a doctor's prescription. Pharmacists will be the distributors.

"The fact that the morning after pill is in reality a high dose estrogen pill, because two pills are taken twice, should be raising medical eyebrows in light of the Mayo Clinic study," says Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition. "We must protect the newly created life in the womb and stop using women as guinea pigs for pharmaceutical companies," he continued.

Campaign Life Coalition strongly suggests that the pilot project be halted and that the Ontario Government and the College of Physicians and Surgeons follow the lead of the B.C. College which stopped the same project in their province because of legal liability.

Media Contacts:

Dr. John Shea - Medical Consultant for Campaign Life Coalition - 416-223-4860
Mrs. Mary Ellen Douglas - National Organizer CLC - 613-389-4472
Mrs Karen Murawsky - Ottawa Public Affairs Office - 613-729-037

Campaign Life Coalition is Canada's national pro-life organization.