The political passions that have inflamed the abortion debate in this country for the past 31 years are coming to a pharmacy near you.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration won't decide until next month whether to approve a "morning after" emergency contraceptive pill for over-the-counter sale, but even if it does, there's no guarantee that women will be able to purchase the drug over the counter at local pharmacies in Pittsburgh.

Wal-Mart, for example, has never carried the prescription-only version of the Plan B pill in its pharmacies, and it doesn't plan to change that policy regardless of what action is taken by the FDA, which is scheduled to vote on the issue Feb. 20.

Wal-Mart's stance is not about abortion politics, said Danette Thompson, a company spokeswoman. "This is a business decision. This is not a pill that has been frequently asked for, and our stance is not in any way a moral decision."

Officials at CVS and Eckerd, two of the largest drug store chains, said their stores currently fill prescriptions for emergency contraceptives, but they declined to say whether they would provide the drug, which would retail for between $25 to $30 over the counter in the event of FDA approval.

Many independent pharmacies, on the other hand, have already made up their minds.

"We do not plan to carry it," said John Yakim, a pharmacist at the family owned Yakim Pharmacy in Plum. "Basically, it works after conception, so to me, that is essentially an abortion."

As the FDA's decision date looms, sensitivities about the passions surrounding abortion have increased in the pharmaceutical community. Several pharmacists who plan to sell the drug refused permission to be quoted for fear of reprisals, and one pharmacist who initially said she would carry it called back and said her boss had told her to retract those comments and that the store would not carry it after all.

A few others were willing to go on the record.

Plan B, as the drug is known, is meant to serve as a backup when contraception either fails or isn't used at all, and it is already available by prescription. "We will sell Plan B. It's everyone's right to have it," said Richard Kale, a pharmacist at Schiller's in Shadyside, without elaborating further.

Susan Merenstein, a pharmacist at Community Drug in Greenfield, agreed but stressed that she has some reservations. Customers won't find Plan B, whose active ingredient is the synthetic hormone levonorgestrel, among the aspirin and the antacids, she said.

"They will have to ask for it," she said. "We want to be sure that the patient receives the right information about the correct usage."

Plan B requires a woman to take one pill within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, with a second tablet 12 hours after that. It works by flooding the body with hormones, a process that blocks ovulation and implantation of a fertilized egg. There are some side effects, like nausea and vomiting, and in some cases, bleeding and clotting, but they are considerably less than those of older emergency contraceptives, like Previn, which combines two hormones, progestin and estrogen. Plan B is progestin only. It also has to be a high dose because it has to work quickly.

What bothers Merenstein, she said, is that, unlike birth control pills, which require a doctor's prescription, approval for over-the-counter use means that any young person can walk in and buy it.

"I will give her the product, but not without a speech first," Merenstein said, "not without an educational lesson about the risks of being sexually active and the risks of sexually transmitted diseases."

Safety is an issue for pharmacists who oppose the sale of Plan B, too.

"What if you've got an adolescent smoker who has an underlying clotting disease who is taking this powerful drug, without the oversight of a physician?" asked Mark Kristine, a pharmacist at a large chain drug store he declined to identify.

But Dr. Mitchell Creinin, director of family planning at the University of Pittsburgh and Magee-Womens Hospital, said that study after study has shown that the drug is safe.

"Contraceptives do not cause birth defects. That's been known for years," he said.

And when weighed against the health risks of a surgical abortion or a full-term pregnancy, Plan B presents a safer alternative, he added. Despite increased abstinence-only programs and sex education, about 80 percent of the 850,000 teen pregnancies are unplanned.

Health concerns aren't all that preoccupy pharmacists opposed to the sale of Plan B, however.

In the mid-1980s by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defined pregnancy as occurring after a fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus.

That's because when fertilization occurs, the chance of miscarriage is very high, said Dr. Mohan Paranjpe, director of the obstetrics and gynecology clinic at Allegheny General Hospital. "It's pretty difficult to say pregnancy has occurred at this stage. Once it's established in the uterus, then we call it a regular pregnancy."

But many opponents of abortion believe that conception begins with fertilization and have problems with ACOG's definition, including Joe Di Matteo, who owns Medicine Shoppe pharmacies in Penn Hills and Oakmont. Di Matteo says he will not carry Plan B because not only does it constitute abortion but, in his mind, it will encourage more sexual activity among young people.