[Vision2020] Since When Have Facts Stopped The Religious Right?

[Art Deco]

  [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>

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June 8, 2012
How Morning-After Pills Really Work

Religious conservatives are losing one of their primary arguments for
trying to ban the morning-after birth control pill that can prevent
pregnancy if taken within days after sexual intercourse. They and their
political allies have long contended that the pills work by aborting an
embryo at the earliest stages of development. But, as Pam Belluck reported
in The Times on Wednesday, the latest scientific findings and expert
opinion indicate that the pills work by delaying
ovulation<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/health/research/morning-after-pills-dont-block-implantation-science-suggests.html?pagewanted=all>so
that sperm can’t fertilize an egg to create an embryo.

Belief that the pill might be an abortifacient stems from speculative
language that the Food and Drug Administration approved for its original
label, which listed a number of physiological processes by which the pill
might prevent pregnancy, including preventing fertilized eggs from
implanting in the womb.

There was no evidence to support that view at the time, and there is none
to support it now. Studies in Australia and Chile have convincingly shown
that the pill acts solely by delaying ovulation.

The F.D.A. now acknowledges that the emerging data suggest the
morning-after pill, often called Plan B, does not inhibit implantation. It
should remove that unsupported suggestion from the label. Mitt Romney and
other politicians need to stop calling it an “abortive” pill. Decisions on
whether to take the pill should be left to women.

This page supports easy access to the morning-after pill without a doctor’s
prescription to help prevent unwanted pregnancies. We also support a
treatment regimen based on RU-486, which does abort an implanted embryo
weeks after the morning-after pill no longer works. It provides a safe
alternative to the dwindling availability of surgical abortions in many
areas. The decision on taking RU-486 should be left to women and their
doctors.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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