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The young man at the Rite Aid counter raised an eyebrow. I had just dropped 12 bottles of diet pills and some cough syrup onto the counter.

“Can I buy all of these at once?” I asked.

“Sure, why not?” he said.

“And I don’t need an ID?”

“Nope.”

“Thanks,” I said, gathering the cumbersome containers in my arms to return them to the pharmacy section of the store.

The Food and Drug Administration recently decided to allow the morning-after pill, also known as Plan B, to be sold over the counter to those 18 and over. But according to the Houston Chronicle, it’s been described by obstetrics and gynecology Professor Sandra A. Carson as being safer than aspirin. Why would the FDA put age restrictions on such a drug?

Pressure from the religious right.

Plan B had been approved in 2003 for over-the-counter sale by the FDA’s own advisory committee, but the process was suddenly stalled when conservative lobbyists from Washington began to interfere. A narrow-minded definition of morality trumped science and logic for the next three years.

Not that it ended after those three years. It just lessened a bit, which is why anyone can buy a lethal combination of drugs without a prescription at any Rite-Aid, but need a valid ID for the morning-after pill in all but nine states. (Breathe easy – California is one of the nine.)

Reproduction seems to have become the moral fixation for conservatives. Many oppose making Plan B easily accessible because, even though this has yet to be proven, the drug might have the potential to prevent an already fertilized egg from implanting into the uterus. This is viewed by strict pro-lifers as equivalent to an abortion.

Yet no war has been launched against regular birth control pills, which also have the potential to prevent fertilized eggs from implanting.

Judging from the fact that the average couple has far fewer than 15 children, banning or restricting the use of monthly birth control pills would sound like crazy talk to the public. Conservative morality is all fine and good until it becomes inconvenient or unappealing to voters.

Which is why George Bush wholeheartedly supports in vitro fertilization, praising it as a process that helps many couples experience the joys of parenthood. I mean, really, how bad would it look to condemn a happy couple clutching their newborn, albeit test-tube-conceived, baby?

Yet the process of in vitro fertilization includes making more embryos than necessary in order to select the most fertile for the procedure. The leftover embryos can then be frozen or discarded. Adoption of extra embryos is possible, although highly unlikely. Only 2 percent of embryos are even made available for adoption.

Bush, however, is the same president whose only veto was for a bill that would have expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Even with the breakthrough of a new method that would allow the generation of cells without destroying embryos, he has still held firm in his opposition of the idea.

Big, scary scientists conducting research on helpless little embryos is a frightening image. Couples having babies is a positive image, especially because IVF clinics throw away the extra embryos behind closed doors.

The glaring hypocrisy within the Republican repertoire of beliefs is obvious yet still effective at garnering support from voters who like to feel moral and righteous without being inconvenienced by unpleasantries.

If conservatives really believed that chemically preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in a woman’s uterus was tantamount to murder, they would work to completely ban all forms of hormonal birth control.

If they really thought that embryos are human beings, there would be thousands of protesters marching in the streets, decrying the holocaust currently occurring at in vitro fertilization clinics across the nation.

But unpopular opinions, however moral, do not win elections. Political morality has nothing to do with right versus wrong and everything to do with the best way to convince the public to vote with its heart at the expense of its brain.

Send prayers and Rite Aid gift cards to Strickland at

kstrickland@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.