"The 10 to 2 vote, with one abstention and one member absent, ended a prohibition on the pills enacted in April when the trustees, known as the Board of Visitors, ordered the health center to cease distributing the pills that had been available to students for the previous eight years. That vote was 7 to 6.

"In a pointed rebuff to abortion opponents who had pressed for the ban, the resolution also said the board "further grants authority for all future health-related decisions pertaining to students to the administration and its medical staff."

"The ban had galvanized a large segment of the student body on the Harrisonburg, Va., campus, prompting petition drives urging a reversal of the ban and pickets outside the homes of some trustees who had voted for it.