Please read Charlotte Allen on Plan B, George Bush and what we can expect down the road- in short order.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that Bush has blown off pro-lifers in an effort to make some sort of compromise with their opponents on life issues. Almost exactly five years ago, in August 2001, Bush (or his advisers) decided he could please both sides on the embryonic stem-cell debate by allowing federal funding for research on stem-cell lines from embryos that had already been killed, on the theory that the embryos were dead anyway, so who cared? This unprecedented (even Bill Clinton had shied away from funding embryonic stem-cell research) and unprincipled (isn’t it grossly immoral to benefit from the deliberate destruction of human entities?) decision did nothing whatsoever to placate the militant pro–stem cell faction, which lobbied relentlessly until it nearly got what it wanted in the form of this year’s embryonic-destruction funding bill that, despite a Bush veto, isn’t going to go away. But Bush got a free pass back in 2001 from many religious conservatives who should have known better but decided to support him because he seemed more pro-life than his opposition (witness this mealy-mouthed editorial in the National Catholic Register).

I hope that this time around, the religious conservatives wake up to the fact that Bush is often not their friend. Again, he has thrown them a few bones—in the name of provisions for monitoring Plan B distribution in order to ensure that the pills do not fall directly (in contrast to indirectly) into the hands of minors. But Bush’s opponents—Planned Parenthood and its many allies—already have their knives sharpened to gut those provisions, as well as the ban on sales to girls age seventeen and under. And there is more nastiness in sight for pro-life pharmacists, physicians, and hospitals. The Washington Post reports this:

The FDA decision does not resolve other controversial issues swirling around the pills, including the refusal of hospitals run by religious organizations to offer them, of some pharmacies to stock them and of some antiabortion pharmacists to dispense them.

Expect the abortion lobby, now that it has gotten most of what it wanted, to focus its efforts on securing the rest: forcing medical professionals of conscience to dispense a known abortifacient even to children or else lose their licenses and their livelihoods. Thank you very much, George W. Bush.