Thank you, Iowa State Daily, for taking a stand on the important issue of emergency contraception.

As a young woman and an Iowa State student who might someday need emergency contraception, I am outraged that a major conglomerate like Wal-Mart thinks it has the right to pull a perfectly legal contraceptive kit from its she1ves.

Emergency contraception was not developed as an alternative to abortion.

Rather, it was developed to prevent unintended pregnancy when a woman’s normal means of birth control may have failed.

Wal-Mart is taking an unethical and irresponsible stand by denying this pregnancy-prevention option to its customers.

While I respect the right of people to disagree about the morality of contraception and abortion, it is the woman who makes that choice and also the woman who lives with that choice.

Wal-Mart has a moral obligation not to impede a woman’s access to emergency contraception.

The fact is, emergency contraception is not abortion and consists of the very same oral contraceptive pills that Wal-Mart will continue to sell in monthly-cycle packaging.

A report in the July 2, 1998 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine found that widespread use of emergency contraception would prevent an estimated 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions each year.

Those numbers alone are reason enough to make emergency contraception readily accessible to the general public.

I agree with the Iowa State Daily editorial board that health-care benefits, especially birth control, should not be denied to any individual in this nation.

Once again, thank you for recognizing and taking a stand on such an important issue.

Alexa Colby

Senior

Journalism and mass communication