Emergency Contraception and Abortion
Is the Morning After Pill and the Abortion Pill One and the Same?
Nov 27, 2008
If a woman has sex and her primary birth control method fails, the next morning can be very scary. If she is over 18 she can go to the pharmacy and get emergency contraception without a prescription in order to back up her original birth control method. Unfortunately, she may already have received some misinformation about what emergency contraception is and even when she calls the pharmacy they may not totally clear up her concerns. There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the issue of emergency contraception and whether or not it is giving women the opportunity to have an abortion under the guise of preventative birth control.
What is Emergency Contraception?
The Planned Parenthood website says that emergency contraception (EC) is a set of pills a woman can take up to 5 days (120 hrs) after unprotected sex in order to prevent pregnancy. The moniker “morning after pill” is somewhat misleading in that it is not just one pill, but at least two pills depending on the brand used. It can also be referred to as Plan B, which is actually a brand name. Preven is another brand. The pills are made of the same hormones as traditional birth control pills but in much higher dose. They also work the same way - by preventing ovulation and thickening the cervical mucus (keeps sperm from reaching the egg).
Emergency contraception can also come in the form of an IUD called ParaGuard and traditional birth control pills can be used for the same purpose as well.
What is the Abortion Pill?
The “medical abortion” is also not just one pill, but at least two pills depending on if a miscarriage is achieved after the second pill. The Feminist Women’s Health Center website says there are two types of medications a woman must take in order to abort a pregnancy of 8 weeks or less. The first is mifepristone, which is also known as RU486, and the second is misoprostol. Mifepristone is usually administered at the doctor’s office and then the misoprostol is taken 24 to 72 hours later. Misoprostol causes contractions in the uterus in order to expel the pregnancy. Before taking these medications, the woman must be confirmed pregnant and must agree to have a surgical abortion should the pills not work.
How are the Morning After Pill and the Abortion Pill Different?
Emergency contraception cannot terminate a confirmed pregnancy. It is a means of preventing pregnancy, hence the word contraception as a part of the name. The “abortion pill” can definitely terminate a confirmed pregnancy.
Why the Confusion?
The debate is centered over two key questions: When does life begin? and How does EC work exactly?
First, on defining pregnancy, the Guttmacher Report on Public Policy titled “The Implications of Defining When a Woman is Pregnant” says that the scientific community and federal policy are in agreement that a woman is not considered pregnant until a fertilized egg has implanted in the wall of her uterus. There are others, however, who believe that a woman is pregnant once the egg has been fertilized by sperm.
Second, figuring out how EC works exactly is a little more complicated than it seems. According to the Plan B website, the medication prevents ovulation, thickens the cervical mucus, and “may also prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.” The only information for Preven is found on Drugs.com which states that it “inhibits implantation.” The Emergency Contraception Website, an independently reviewed website operated by the Office of Population Research at Princeton University says that “the best available evidence suggests that ECPs’ [emergency contraception pills] ability to prevent pregnancy can be fully accounted for by mechanisms that do not involve interference with post-fertilization events.” The truth to be found in all of this is that it is not definitively known how EC works in relation to implantation of a fertilized egg.
The Morningafterpill.org website asserts that a fertilized egg equals pregnancy and if a woman takes EC while a fertilized egg is making its way through her fallopian tube and EC has altered the uterus to prevent implantation, then the result is an abortion. With this view emergency contraception is at least similar to the abortion pill. However, using the definition of pregnancy accepted by the medical community and the federal government there is no way EC can terminate a pregnancy because it has no effect on a fertilized egg already attached to the uterine wall.
What’s the Right Answer?
Technically the answer is no. Emergency contraception and the “abortion pill” are not the same thing. They are different medications that cause different reactions in a woman’s body as it relates to her reproductive organs. However, the real right answer can only be determined by the individual woman in the situation. She has to decide what is right for her and what course of action she wants to take. Emergency contraception is in no way intended to facilitate an abortion and any information on Plan B and Preven maintains that if a woman is already pregnant, using the medically accepted definition, the medication will have no effect.
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