Newer Findings Dispute View of Morning-After Pill as Abortion

[SecularMotion]

Source: NY Times

Labels inside every box of morning-after pills, drugs widely used to prevent pregnancy after sex, say they may work by blocking fertilized eggs from implanting in a woman’s uterus. Respected medical authorities, including the National Institutes of Health and the Mayo Clinic, have said the same thing on their Web sites.

Such descriptions have become kindling in the fiery debate over abortion and contraception. Based on the belief that a fertilized egg is a person, some religious groups and conservative politicians say disrupting a fertilized egg’s ability to attach to the uterus is abortion, “the moral equivalent of homicide,” as Dr. Donna Harrison, who directs research for the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, put it. Mitt Romney recently called emergency contraceptives “abortive pills.” And two former Republican presidential candidates, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, have made similar statements.

But an examination by The New York Times has found that, the federally approved labels and medical Web sites do not reflect what the science shows. Studies have not established that emergency contraceptive pills prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the womb, leading scientists say. Rather, the pills delay ovulation, the release of eggs from ovaries that occurs before eggs are fertilized, and some pills also thicken cervical mucus so sperm have trouble swimming.

It turns out that the politically charged debate over morning-after pills and abortion, a divisive issue in this election year, is probably rooted in outdated or incorrect scientific guesses about how the pills work. Because they block creation of fertilized eggs, they would not meet abortion opponents’ definition of abortion-inducing drugs. In contrast, RU-486 is an abortion pill because it destroys implanted embryos, terminating pregnancies.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/health/research/morning-after-pills-dont-block-implantation-science-suggests.html?_r=1&hp

[hobbit709]

1. The people against this are not going to let facts get in the way of their beliefs.

Which is the whole problem in the first place.

[Solly Mack]

11. And that covers it.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Since less than 1/3 of all human fertilized eggs ever become a baby human,

then those RW people must sure be down on 'God'.

[JDPriestly]

7. You make an interesting point.

I have three large avocado trees in my back yard. Every spring each of them sprouts thousands of blossoms. Literally thousands of tiny blossoms show up on each tree. Then the sorrel flowers beneath the trees bloom, and, drawn by the bright yellow sorrel flowers, the bees show up -- always on schedule around 10:00 a.m. every morning -- and pollinate the avocado blossoms.

Thousands of tiny blossoms, each created to become an avocado and so many bees. I begin to dream of trees sagging from the weight of avocados. This year, I think. This year we will have more than enough avocados to feed us, all our neighbors and our friends with some left over. Hmmm. Guacamole, I can taste it in my mouth.

The baby avocados form, tiny, plump green balls on the branches of the trees where the blossoms were. And then, just as sure as the blossoms sprouted and the sorrel bloomed and the bees arrived, most of the baby avocados fall to the ground within days and weeks of their creation.

The avocado "embryos" cover my yard. Only a few survive on the limbs of my trees. I'm sure there is some way to increase the numbers of avocados that survive, but I don't know what it is.

Nature promises; nature pollinates; nature creates thousands of avocado embryos. And then, nature kills most of its promises, most of the baby avocados.

The avocados that do survive are strong and healthy and in the right number to mature into large avocados in our back yard. Let me assure you, our avocados are the best you can find, far better than any you buy in the market, even at the farmers' market.

Limiting the quantity of our avocados in order to assure quality is an example of nature's wisdom.

We humans have invented all kinds of ways to foil nature and its natural killer instinct. We try to trick it, to prevent it from limiting the numbers of its creations that it permits to survive. But nature is much smarter than we are.

We love our children and our babies and we want each of them to live. But, by interfering with the nature's processes, we are overpopulating the earth, demanding too much of its limited resources. If we don't find a way to limit the numbers of our species, nature will. That is nature's way. Birth control and the morning after pill do not contravene nature. They imitate it.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. I agree.

[freshwest]

12. Sounds like heaven at your home no matter what happens to the avocadoes.

[JDPriestly]

13. The trees are heavenly, and I'm slowly but surely working on the rest.

It's hard to garden in Southern California because it is so dry here. But I love it.

[boppers]

14. Way less, way, way less.

*most* fertilized eggs are aborted, naturally. Close to 90%.

[BlueIris]

15. Thank you, sane poster.

When I first read this in 2005, I was surprised. But it wasn't so hard for me to accept. Why can't religious whackjobs figure it out?

[SunSeeker]

3. K&R

[sakabatou]

4. I wonder if they ever call a woman having her period, "manslaughter."

[progressoid]

5. That doesn't matter to the Pope.

It's still a SIN!!!!!!!

[RainDog]

6. interesting info n/t

[Blue_Tires]

9. That's the whole point...It never was abortion

but the anti-choice extremists were able to frame it as such, and it stuck...

[sudopod]

10. I know that we have to do this, but geez.

It's like asking "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" Yeah, there's some pure science there, and that's great, but that's not why Bishop So and So cares.

The answer is: "It doesn't matter. Nobody cares." A woman has the right over what happens to her body either way.

Thanks for the article, though. It'll aggravate some nutters, for sure.