Consider this paradox: A few weeks ago the Virginia legislature scored a long-sought pro-life victory, mustering enough votes to pass a law mandating a waiting period before a woman may undergo an abortion. Now, a measure that treats abortion-causing pills almost like cough drops has garnered huge support in both houses (Senate 25-12; House 58-40). The chambers have until tomorrow night to work out a key difference — whether children under 18 will need parental consent to purchase ECPs. Pro-life Governor James Gilmore III has been mum on what action he'll take if a compromise bill crosses his desk.
One pro-life delegate explained his support for the OTC-ECP bill: “I think it's an anti-abortion vote, in the sense that it prevents unwanted pregnancies.” The argument that won pro-life support was surely that of the bill's chief House sponsor: “Easier access to emergency contraceptives could drastically reduce the number of abortions in Virginia.”
If one understands just the basics of fertility, human development, and how ECPs work, both the above statements are ludicrous.
Since at least 1965, when leadership in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) redefined “conception” to accommodate pre-implantation killing of embryos, the abortion industry has run its own version of Orwell's Ministry of Truth, where definitions are professionally tailored to fit their dehumanizing agenda. In pro-abortion Newspeak, life begins at implantation; post-coital interventions to end the life of a developing human are called “contraception”; and a human in the first stage of life is not an embryo, but a “fertilized ovum” or a “pre-embryo.”
Compounding the wrong of the underlying deception — passing off pills that cause abortion as “contraceptives” — are several other factors. “Informed consent” is central to the practice of medicine. That is, a failure to properly advise a patient of risks and options is grounds for a malpractice suit. Proposals like Virginia's wrest the dispensing responsibility (which includes the exercise of sound medical judgment) out of the privacy of a doctor's office — where true consultation and a confidential review of the woman's medical history can take place. Virginia's plan would leave distraught young women standing at very public pharmacy counters where no meaningful doctor-patient consultation is likely to occur.
Should a state law mandating parental consent for a minor child's abortion not also apply to handing out abortion-inducing drugs? And what of pro-life pharmacists? Should they be required to violate their conscience and assist in terminating the life of an unborn child?
Taking ECPs can entail risks, some of which threaten the life of the mother. Perhaps that's why a webpage promoting ECP use, posted by the Virginia Chapter of the National Organization for Women, states: “Any use of emergency contraceptives should be under the supervision of a service provider.” About half the women using the Preven brand suffer from nausea and 20% experience vomiting (which may include vomiting up the medication itself). The Preven website lists many possible risks associated with use of the drug. And women using ECPs are at risk of experiencing any of the other dangerous, sometimes fatal, complications that have been reported in very rare cases with the normal, prolonged use of birth control pills. These include: thrombophlebitis (blood clots in the legs), lung clots, heart attack, stroke, liver damage, liver tumor, gallbladder disease, and high blood pressure.
Dr. Hanna Klaus summarizes the problems wrought by ECPs: “Women can also expect menstrual-cycle disruptions and prolonged, patternless bleeding, as well as largely as yet uninvestigated long-term metabolic alterations.
(This article courtesy of National Review Online.)
For more Pro-Life resources click here.
The risk of thrombotic embolism is also greater, especially in smokers. But more insidious is the possible damage to a woman's emotional health. Procreation is an incredibly profound event in a woman's life. If a woman unintentionally becomes pregnant and has an abortion, at least she acknowledges that she has conceived a life. But if conceiving can be immediately undone, you cease to fully appreciate that you are an acting person and that your actions have real consequences.”
There are, of course, crucial questions at stake. When does a human life begin? Do ECPs postpone the beginning, or kill the baby whose life has already begun? To everyone but the Roe Court, the answer to the first question is obvious and no reputable scientist claims otherwise. “Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoon) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.”
How soon after intercourse can fertilization occur?
First, because a healthy woman is infertile for about 21 days of the average 28-day cycle, intercourse during that time is not likely to produce a child. There is no ovum available to be fertilized then, though one must allow for the roughly five-day life span of any sperm deposited in her cervix, the life span of which may continue into the ensuing fertile phase. Early in the luteal phase, ECPs taken within 72 hours of intercourse are not needed to prevent conception or implantation, but, if taken, they may delay or disrupt the next cycle. Late in this phase, ECPs taken within 72 hours of intercourse can prevent conception and may delay or disrupt the next cycle.
Let's next assume intercourse occurs at ovulation when an ovum has just been released. In as little as 15 to 30 minutes following intercourse, a sperm may begin penetrating the ovum, kicking off the process of fertilization. If ECPs are taken, they can no longer prevent the conception that has already begun, but will change the endometrium to prevent implantation. The synthetic progestin of the ECPs, or the antiprogestin of mifepristone (RU 486) prevent the normal changes in the nutrient lining of the uterus, thus preventing implantation of the embryo, an event which normally would occur between days six and 10 of life. The embryo then dies, cut off from his or her only source of oxygen and nutrition.
If certain ECPs are taken before ovulation, when no ovum is available to be fertilized, the ECPs may prevent the surge of luteinizing hormone which stimulates the follicle into releasing its ovum. An ovum otherwise may have been released in time to be fertilized. Presumably, the ECPs would briefly continue to afford contraceptive “protection.” But this scenario is limited to a very few days out of the “monthly” cycle.
Returning to our original claim: Will easier access to ECPs “drastically reduce the number of abortions in Virginia”? No. It's likely that with easy availability, no medical advice, and operating under a 72-hour decision deadline, a greater number of frightened teens and women will resort to using ECPs and experience these early abortions. During a trial period in Washington State when pharmacists were allowed to dispense ECPs over the counter, calls to the ECP hotline increased ten-fold to 1,160 per month. More than 2,700 prescriptions were filled in the first four months alone. Dr. Anna Glasier and others conducted a study in Scotland to see if women allowed to keep ECPs in their medicine cabinet would be more or less likely to use them than women who first needed to obtain a doctor's prescription. All women had either prior ECP use or a prior surgical abortion. Forty-seven percent of the “medicine-cabinet” group of women used ECPs at least once in the two-year study period, compared to 27% of the women in the control group. Ten percent of each group used them more than once. One woman was dropped from the study after she used ECPs four times in four months.
Some may argue that if a woman is abortion-minded, it's better for her to take the life of a week-old embryo than one at 10 weeks. But it's wrong to consider early hormonally induced abortions a lesser evil than later-term abortions simply because the embryo has less resemblance to what we think humans look like. In fact, we all once looked exactly like a week-old embryo. The essence and effect of both abortions is the same: An individual is deprived of her entire earthly life span. She will never be kissed or cuddled, never walk on a beach or ride a bike, never sing in a choir or graduate from college, never fall in love, raise kids, have a fulfilling career, or leave the world a better place for having lived there.
Women and their children deserve better than this.
