LIFE ISSUES NO. 2655

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
("Emergency Contraceptive" Pill)

Last week you answered questions which indicated that, at times, the birth control pill can produce an abortion inside of her at one week of life.  Is this correct?   Yes, it is correct. 

Well, then, what about the emergency contraceptive pill?  First of all, that’s a misnomer—it isn’t a contraceptive.  It’s more properly termed an emergency abortion pill.

Why is this?  Let’s look at it this way.  She is exposed on Saturday night.  She takes her pills on Sunday.  Now, Scenario One:  Let’s assume that she had ovulated Saturday night and that an egg was waiting.  Sperm deposited inside of her body reach the ovary in as short a time as thirty minutes, so fertilization would have occurred.  She would be pregnant before she got out of bed.  Twelve hours or so later, she takes the pills.  In no way can they prevent fertilization, so they’re not a contraceptive.  However, at the end of the month she came around and menstruated normally.  The reason was that this fertilized egg, which became a living human embryo and was one-week old when he or she reached the lining of womb, could not plant and died.  And so she came around with a normal period.  The effect of the pill, in this case, is abortive.

And that’s what always happens?  Well, no.  In the vast majority of times, she was not fertilized in the first place, maybe she didn’t ovulate—there are other reasons—and she just didn’t need to take the pills at all – they were useless.  But there is yet another possibility.

Let’s take the same woman—only Scenario Two:  She is exposed on Saturday night and takes her pill on Sunday.  It so happens that this lady was programmed to ovulate Monday.  On Monday, she still has live sperm in her female tract.  The egg is released and it’s fertilized.  But a few scientists have suggested that the pill on Sunday might prevent her ovulation on Monday, in which case, the effect of the pill would be to prevent pregnancy, not cause an abortion at one week of life.  Now, this is not proven.  It is only conjecture and may or may not actually ever happen.  I merely tell you, though, because it’s been suggested.

So what’s the bottom line here?  The bottom line is very clear.  So-called “emergency contraceptive pills” are not contraceptive.  Ordinarily, when they’re taken, they weren’t needed.  But in the great majority of times, when they do function, they function to kill an already existing human at one week of life and, therefore, they should be called “emergency abortion pills”.

[09/07/01]