WASHINGTON (Map, News) - On Monday, President Bush endorsed over-the-counter sales of a morning-after pill that those against abortion say can cause early-term abortions, although he said prescriptions should be required for minors.

The president’s remarks, which came in response to questions by The Examiner, infuriated anti-abortion groups who said underage girls will merely obtain the pill, known as Plan B, from boyfriends and others who are 18 or older. Pro-abortion groups cheered the president’s remarks, saying he was abandoning years of opposition to Plan B.

“I believe that Plan B ought to require a prescription for minors,” Bush said at a news conference in the White House press corps’s temporary offices near the West Wing.

Bush also stood by the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, who told Plan B’s makers last month: “We believe that the appropriate age for [over-the-counter] access is 18.” Such comments have prompted anti-abortion groups to demand that Bush withdraw his nomination of Eschenbach as the permanent commissioner.

“I support Andy’s decisions,” Bush said Monday.

Currently, women need a prescription to obtain Plan B, which can terminate a pregnancy within 72 hours of conception by preventing a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.

That amounts to an early-term abortion, say those against the practice, who generally believe life begins at conception.

“The president must demonstrate a consistent respect for the sanctity of all human life or he risks provoking a great divorce with the conservative Catholics that compromise a large part of his support base,” said the Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International.

Euteneuer said Bush’s support for Plan B “is completely inconsistent with his recent veto of the embryonic stem cell research funding bill. What the president apparently fails to realize is that Plan B kills the same innocent unborn children that the ESCR process does.”

Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, said she was “surprised” by Bush’s comments.

“This represents a turnaround in the position of the administration, which has been opposed to making Plan B available over the counter,” she told The Examiner. “It’s a step in the right direction. And I hope it means that the FDA will approve Plan B for over-the-counter use this week.”

White House spokesman Emily Lawrimore defended the president’s position on minors.

“We have been assured that the FDA recognizes the critical distinction between minors and adults, and the risks a drug like this can pose,” she said. “It will insist on stringent conditions and restrictions on access to reduce both health risks and opportunities for abuse, especially to protect minors.”

bsammon@dcexaminer.com