Colombian court refuses to recognize abortifacient mechanism of morning-after pill

Bogotá, Colombia, Jun 11, 2008 / 10:30 am

A federal court in Colombia has thrown out a lawsuit to prohibit distribution of the morning-after pill in the country, denying the drug’s abortifacient effect despite testimony by the drug’s manufacturers to the contrary.

The lawsuit was brought by Carlos Humberto Gomez, who sued the country’s Food and Drug Administration for authorizing the organization Profamilia to import and sell the morning-after pill for a period of ten years.

Gomez asked the court to issue a ruling on the drug that, he explained, can “cause the death of the human life that is the product of the union of the sperm and the ovum before it reaches the womb.”

“The use of the abortifacient pills would contribute to spreading the aberrant idea that the so-called right to an abortion is an achievement,” Gomez said.  “If the child is not wanted he doesn’t have to be killed, he can be given in adoption” or entrusted to child protection agencies.

The court, however, ruled in favor of the promoters of the drug and refused to recognize its abortifacient effect.

In the ruling, Justice Rafael Ostau de La Font called the drug a “contraceptive” and claimed that “the process of gestation can take between 12 and 16 days after sexual relations.  Since the pill is only effective up to 72 hours after relations, it will continue to be legal in Colombia.”