Well look what the Mayo Clinic just told me about abortion. Please spread this very well concealed

[Maraya1969]

information around! Consider that most abortions happen in the 1st to 6th week.


http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/pregnancy-week-by-week/in-depth/prenatal-care/art-20045302


Weeks 1 and 2 - You are NOT even pregnant.

"Weeks 1 and 2: Getting ready

It might seem strange, but you're not actually pregnant the first week or two of the time allotted to your pregnancy. Yes, you read that correctly!

Conception typically occurs about two weeks after your last period begins. To calculate your due date, your health care provider will count ahead 40 weeks from the start of your last period. This means your period is counted as part of your pregnancy — even though you weren't pregnant at the time."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Week 3: Fertilization



Illustration of fertilization and implantation Fertilization and implantation
The sperm and egg unite in one of your fallopian tubes to form a one-celled entity called a zygote. If more than one egg is released and fertilized, you might have multiple zygotes.

The zygote typically has 46 chromosomes — 23 from you and 23 from the father. These chromosomes help determine your baby's sex, traits such as eye and hair color, and, to some extent, personality and intelligence.

Soon after fertilization, the zygote travels down the fallopian tube toward the uterus. At the same time, it will begin dividing to form a cluster of cells resembling a tiny raspberry — a morula.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Week 4: Implantation

By the time it reaches the uterus, the rapidly dividing ball of cells — now known as a blastocyst — has separated into two sections.

The inner group of cells will become the embryo. The outer group will become the cells that nourish and protect it. On contact, the blastocyst will burrow into the uterine wall for nourishment. This process is called implantation.

The placenta, which will nourish your baby throughout the pregnancy, also begins to form.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Week 5: The embryonic period begins - IT IS NOT EVEN AN EMBRYO UNTIL THE 5TH WEEK!

The fifth week of pregnancy, or the third week after conception, marks the beginning of the embryonic period. This is when the baby's brain, spinal cord, heart and other organs begin to form. (More at the link)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Week 6: The neural tube closes -

Growth is rapid this week. Just four weeks after conception, the neural tube along your baby's back is closing and your baby's heart is pumping blood

(More at the link)

Why wasn't I ever told this and why is not common knowledge? The morning after pill is just like taking the birth control pill. You are not even pregnant!

[valerief]

1. Uh, Jesus. God's Will. It's a mystery. Science is only a theory.

America is a Christian nation.

All of the above.
Because fundy nations are stupid nations.

[whistler162]

8. Well if they are you are in the

right place!

[TheVisitor]

14. Speaking of America being a Christian nation...

Campfield's 'In God We Trust' bill passes Senate unanimously

And Another...
Senate passes bill adding 'In God We Trust' to state seal

And... one more... there are just so many to choose from!
Pa. House passes 'In God We Trust' bill

The House on Monday passed a bill expressly allowing - but not requiring - school districts in Pennsylvania to post the words "In God We Trust" on school buildings.

[valerief]

16. Blech! This is such a goddam theocracy.

This has been so utterly perverted with shit like your links and Citizens United.

Prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.

It might as well be written in Esperanto, it's so meaningless now.

[TheVisitor]

22. I totally agree with you...

It is a fucking outrage that this continues to happen. I personally think we should all get together and propose that every religion be acknowledged in these bills that support "In God We Trust" ...

So that it can be adapted across the spectrum and cultures and religions without discrimination... for example,

In Allah We Trust
In Buddah We Trust
In Scientology We Trust

The list goes on, but I'd love to see that challenge brought before all of these 'In God We Trust' rulings... and I'd love to see them quiver in fear at the idea of 'In Allah We Trust' and then reverse their decisions quickly, or get sued for religious discrimination...

[Bartlet]

25. It was a state senate

not the US senate. Having said that, the following is Tennessee's religious freedom section of their state constitution.

Section 3. That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own conscience; that no man can of right be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any minister against his consent; that no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience; and that no preference shall ever be given, by law, to any religious establishment or mode of worship.

Pretty sure this new law abrogates their own state constitution.

[valerief]

28. Are you saying the first amendment in the Bill of Rights doesn't apply in TN?

But I can see your point at the state level.

[Enthusiast]

23. PLUS ONE, a whole bunch!

[baldguy]

31. Denial of science & basic facts is epidemic.

Anti-abortionists, anti-vaxxers, AIDS conspiracy nuts, Pit Bull haters, climate change deniers - the common thread is they all rely on unreasoned fear, spurious logic, myths, outright lies, and unscientific bullshit which has been repeatedly debunked.

And most of all, their actions harm people.

[1dogleft]

39. don't forget the "Weeders"

who think pot is a magical elixir that cures what ails ya. "Gods Bud" will instantly bring you health and vitality. Yee Haw!

[TBF]

40. ...

[KurtNYC]

43. One couple answered the fundies protestors like this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2715649/Weird-hobby-Couple-gain-hordes-fans-picketing-pro-life-abortion-clinic-protests-witty-inappropriate-signs.html

And here they are all praying for the return of Crystal Pepsi...

[Feral Child]

2. K&R n/t

[Chemisse]

3. The birth control pill prevents conception.

The morning after pill inhibits ovulation, which can prevent conception, and may possibly prevent a fertilized egg from implanting, and IUDs prevent the fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.

The anti-abortion zealots want to prevent fertilized eggs from being aborted prior to implantation.

[Bartlet]

27. Not quite

According to the Mayo Clinics website...

"Depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle, morning-after pills may act by one or more of the following actions: delaying or preventing ovulation, blocking fertilization, or keeping a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus."

[AlbertCat]

4. Details details

all you need to know is that it's just a little angel sent from heaven!

"god did it" is all you need to know...right? right?

[Moonwalk]

7. I thought it was the stork brought babies...

[ReRe]

37. When I was a wee child...

... (a very very long time ago,) I thought babies come from a catalog.

[Moonwalk]

50. You were ahead of your time!

When babies are created in a lab, there will, indeed, be a catalog.

[ReRe]

52. Wow...

... that is scientifically futuristic. When the right wing SC eventually throws out Roe v Wade out-right, and childbirth is privatized, that might very well be how one chooses a baby.

[Moonwalk]

53. Alas, no, as it will be very expensive and only available to the 1%....

They'll have tossed out Obamacare, too, after all, so no getting the insurance to help you pay for the baby

[demigoddess]

5. God forbid that women actually know

what goes on. If that happened we would go back to midwives instead of gynecologists. Medical men want to keep things secret in order to keep our business.

[tooeyeten]

6. Mayo Clinic?

Isn't Mayo a science based institution? What do they know!?

[whistler162]

9. Nah... that is the Miracle Whip Clinic.

[valerief]

11. Is that where they combine miracles with flagellation?

Sounds like an old timey monastery.

[calimary]

10. KICK!

K&R. Thanks, Maraya1969! Good post. And because the bad guys want to keep doctors muzzled, your own doctor may not be able to explain this fully to you, depending on what state you live in.

AMAZING. I thought practicing medicine without a license ('eh, rand paul?) was illegal. Guess it must be okay if the state does it...

[SunSeeker]

12. According to Anti-choice plackards, it's already a rosy-cheeked Gerber baby by then.

Sadly, with the level of science education we have, many people don't know better.

[kestrel91316]

13. Duh. I thought everybody already knew this stuff.

We're definitely backsliding in the US. In 50 years women won't even know that sex causes pregnancy.

(headdesk)

[Igel]

15. You're confusing counting with reality.

The MAP prevents implantation. You can take it in week 1 and 2, but those have pretty much nothing to do with actual pregnancy. They're counting weeks in which pregnancy doesn't happen--before ovulation. Why count them? Because women have a decent idea as to when they're menstruating without thinking about it too hard, but knowing when they're ovulating is a bit trickier.

So you count from what's easily knowable, now from what you almost certainly don't know. Even if you're counting a couple of weeks before ovulation and copulation and calling that "gestation."


You take the MAP presumably when you suspect you'll be fertile, immediately after insemination. That would be "week 3" as far as the Mayo Clinic counting is concerned. Implantation follows a few days later. I suspect a lot of women would take it "just in case," even if there's not much of a case to be "just in." Then again, I knew a 17-year-old girl convinced that men provided the egg and women made sperm. It was clear why she'd failed the biology portion of her standardized high-school science test.


A standard birth control pill prevents ovulation. As a consequence, there's nothing to be fertilized.


It's back to whether a fertilized lump of cells counts as a "baby" or person or not. Along the way, there are fairly clear milestones that may or may not be important for some people. "Implantation" is one of them--by itself, that single step isn't a truly huge difference for the fertilized egg and the stages that follow (but it allows more important changes to happen).

For others, what's important is the manner that oxygen gets to the fetus' bloodstream. Again, the fetus doesn't really change much going from one oxygen-delivery system to the other.

[Umbram]

17. This does not mean what you think it means. nt.

[zentrum]

18. Right. This is well known.

But the sacred, magic sperm sent from the holy ghost is not yet in you.
See? Conception occurs the minute Ted Cruz (or whatever taliban-like Republican) thinks about having intercourse with a woman.

[gollygee]

19. This is complicated in two ways

1. When your doctor calculates how many weeks pregnant you are, he/she starts from the first day of your last menstrual cycle, so even before the sexual act that leads to pregnancy - probably about two weeks before that.

2. However, conception doesn't happen immediately when you have sex. It can take days, and the morning after pill prevents ovulation, because if you don't ovulate when sperm cellls are waiting for it, you won't get prenant. Of course it's possilbe to have an egg waiting, but that isn't that common, and there's mixed info about whether the morning after pill does anything at all in that case. (My midwife - who was opposed to abortion - said from everything she's read she doesn't think the morning after pill affects anything after conception.) There is potential that it might prevent implantation, but if it did prevent implantation, it would probably work longer than it does.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/teens/sex/how-pregnancy-happens

[lobodons]

20. Well there you go again

Well there you go again using facts and all.

[nolabear]

21. Thank you! I've been looking for something to share on FB and other public sites.

I'm waaaaaaay beyond getting sucked into an argument, but I'll happily educate. Of course someone's going to try to tell me that The Mayo Clinic is run by Satan...

[Kablooie]

24. Anti abortion has nothing to do with saving babies.

That is just a smoke screen for the real goal which is to eliminate anything that could encourage recreational sex.
They see abortion as a way for 'immoral' women to have sex and not bear the consequences.

Contraception and the pill are on their hit list also but they see anti-abortion as the easiest one to destroy right now.
All these methods have been declared legal by SCOTUS but only abortion seems to have developed chinks in its legal armor so that's the one they are attacking most visibly right now.

[Maraya1969]

33. I think it has more to do with subjugating women.

Woman are still lower class in this society and I am sure that plenty "men" in political high places do not like that women have joined them. They were happy when women were home makin babies and cooking diner.

Mostly churches have only men at the helm. And the ones that have let women in are few and far between. It would seem that they have a definite interest in keeping women out of their club also.


If you get the chance Netflix has a documentary called, "So the bible tells me so" It shows how people have used the bible to crush all sorts of groups that they didn't "like". And it ends with homosexuality and it is very interesting how they show the church demeaning and degrading anyone that they don't like.

Oh and it explains that, "abomination" word. Basically it was all written in terms of what was considered helpful in that day. Like don't eat shellfish because someone died from eating shellfish and don't have sex for fun because we need those babies to keep the numbers up in our tribe or we face death from another tribe.

[Kablooie]

34. I think subjugating women is probably the underlying motive.

The problem for the anti-abortionists is actually, women having recreational sex.

Men are permitted recreational sex because boys will be boys, as they often say.
But women are forbidden sex with anyone but their husband because they are essentially considered to be his property.

[ashling]

46. Because having sex

might lead to dancing.

[7962]

26. I think the "morning after" is just a larger dose of whats in a birth control pill nt

[Freddie]

32. Correct

You can look up how many standard BC pills taken at once = Plan B.

[peace13]

51. Interesting chart at link below. Scroll down.

http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/dose.html

[locdlib]

29. Words and concepts like fertilization, implantation, embroyo, and fetus are too sciency

for RWingers. According to them, a woman is pregnant before she is pregnant.

[AtheistCrusader]

36. Their understanding is so deep, I assume they think of women as tribbles.

'Born pregnant'.

[Ms. Toad]

59. If by "them" you mean the Mayo clinic,

and every gynecologist...yup.

Once you become pregnant, your conception date is artificially pegged at the first date of your last period - a date roughly 2 weeks before you engaged in the act which created the pregnancy. So, according to the standard medical way of counting weeks of pregnancy by medical standards, you are pregnant roughly 2 weeks before you are actually pregnant.

[SoCalDem]

30. Most women have had multiple "abortions"

Those unusually heavy , longer lasting (chunky) periods may well have been one, especially if it was a time when you were late.

Nature often eliminates a pregnancy that was not quite right.

Before there was an easy (at home) way to confirm pregnancy, women used to not even see a doctor until they had definitely missed at least 2 periods.

[AtheistCrusader]

35. The 'Morning After Pill' IS contraception.

It works by preventing or delaying the release of an egg from the ovaries. That's all it does. Doesn't harm or alter the endometrium.

There was study in the 70's that suggested it may have, but it estimated ovulation using the 'calendar method'. Repeated studies since, used the temperature of the endometrium to detect onset of ovulation, and once they revised the data, it has been found that there is no difference between taking the morning after pill, or doing nothing, after onset of ovulation.

The makers of the drugs would have to go through clinical trials again to prove that point, so they just left the warning on the drug. But there is no valid data whatsoever to support the idea that the morning after pill is anything but a contraceptive.

[iamthebandfanman]

38. dont need it because

you don't receive your soul until your first breath. its in the bible. Genesis.

the Christian anti choicers don't have a leg to stand on biblically :p

[indivisibleman]

42. since when does that matter

to today's Christian cult? There is what the Bible actually says and then what contemporary Christians say it says. And then there is the case where it doesn't seem to be very clear at all what it is saying. lol

[Maraya1969]

55. If you ever want to actually see when life begins watch this video of an elephant giving birth

For some reason they repeat the baby coming out 2 times, probably because it is amazing what is dispelled. Then the baby is dead. But keep watching nature. It is not sad, it's wonderful.

[indivisibleman]

41. the Mayo Clinic article

seems to represent this fact somewhat differently from what you are saying. When I go to share the article on facebook the following sentence is the first thing the reader sees: "Fetal development begins before you even know you're pregnant." Thus the pro-fetus crowd will use this information while ignoring the facts of what is actual pregnancy and when abortions are performed.
It appears that about 37% of all abortions take place by the 6th week. Interesting. Now I am wondering how someone who doesn't even know they are pregnant knows enough to realize they need to have an abortion performed.

[Ms. Toad]

44. Why would they not know they are pregnant at 6 weeks? n/t

[indivisibleman]

54. The article makes this claim. n/t

[Ms. Toad]

57. It does not claim that women who are having abortions

don't know they are pregnant.

Trying to suggest that women are having abortions before they know they are pregnant is silly.

But, as a general statement, of course fetal development begins before you know you're pregnant - since no one knows the instant they become pregnant. And apparently some people didn't realize that pregnancy is counted as beginning the first day of the woman's last period - typically around 2 weeks before conception.

[indivisibleman]

60. No, what is says is this:

"Fetal development begins before you even know you're pregnant. Here's what happens early on."

[indivisibleman]

61. I just realized that it only states it this way

when you go to post it to facebook as a link. Interesting.

[Maraya1969]

56. Remind them that some women never know they are pregnant until a baby pops out.

Knowing or not knowing has nothing to do with it.

[RobinA]

45. How Old Are You?

I ask because back when I was in school - the '70's - this was part of health class. At least it was in my high school, although we may have had an exceptionally activist health teacher. Nowadays I doubt they talk about this much at all.

Our Bodies, Ourselves. Maybe it pegs me as an old hippie, but that book rules. Then and now.

[Skinner]

47. The part about weeks 1 and 2 do not mean what some people think it means.

I think some people are confused about that first section, about weeks 1 and 2, and think it means this: You have sex but you aren't actually pregnant for the first two weeks after sex. This is not correct. Here's why this is confusing.

When a woman gets pregnant, the length of time of the pregnancy is counted from the time of the woman's last period. The count is done this way because a woman can fairly easily figure out the date of her last period.

But ovulation is when a woman is most likely to get pregnant. Ovulation occurs about two weeks after a woman has her period. But ovulation is not a convenient time to start the pregnancy clock because it is not obvious when ovulation occurs. If an OB asks a woman when her last ovulation was, the woman is likely to respond that she doesn't know. But if an OB asks a woman when her last period is, she can usually give an answer.

So the "pregnancy clock" starts at the last period. But the actual pregnancy doesn't start until the woman has sex during the time she is ovulating two weeks later.

In other words, the reason they count weeks 1 and 2 as a part of pregnancy is a quirk of the way we time pregnancy. It has nothing to do with a medical definition of conception or the beginning of life or whatever. Sex has not occurred yet.

[tammywammy]

49. Okay, good I'm not the only one confused by some of the responses here.

I thought it was common knowledge that the counting for pregnancy included time when you're not pregnant.

[Ms. Toad]

58. Apparently not (common knowledge). n/t

[hifiguy]

48. Scientific facts and rationality beat ignorance and superstition

100 times out of 100. Too bad people don't recognize this simple and incontrovertible fact.