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State Health Clinics Have Option to Offer Morning-After Pills

By Alabama Public Radio

Washington, D.C. – State health officials say they will continue prescribing morning-after pills at health clinics, despite clarification that the federal government does not mandate offering the pills. Officials had been concerned about losing five million dollars in federal family planning funding if the clinics did not distribute what some call emergency contraception. But U-S Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson wrote in a letter to an Alabama Congressman that the state is not required to distribute the pills to receive federal funding, although the letter also said the state clinics should offer the morning after pills. U-S Representative Robert Aderholt had asked Thompson to clarify the federal rules after workers began distributing the pills at clinics earlier this year.

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