The Tizzy Over OTC Plan B

Pro-aborts, including RH Reality Check, have been in a tizzy since "Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius overruled the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by refusing to allow emergency contraceptives to be sold over the counter (OTC),".  Good for Secretary Sebelius! 

They suggested their decision to deny vulnerable teens access to emergency contraception was based on the lack of evidence on whether young teens would understand how to use the method and whether there might be unknown risks.

Vulnerable teens?  Yep, they sure are.  And vulnerable teens need to be protected. 

Over at Abortion Gang, Kushielsmoon writes:

Plan B One-Step is a brand of morning after pill, which works the same way as birth control pills to prevent pregnancy. It’s more effective the earlier it’s taken, but can be taken up to 72 hours after sex. Plan B cannot terminate a pregnancy- -it is not an abortion pill. (emphasis is mine)

When pregnancy begins is not something science can answer for us.  It's left up to man to pinpoint.  Many years ago, ACOG, The American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians declared that pregnancy begins at implantation.  Why?  From the Population Research Institute

To understand why we have to go back to 1965, when the American Academy of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) arbitrarily and redefined the terms “conception” and "pregnancy.” The group first threw out the then-accepted definition of conception as occurring at fertilization, that is, when the sperm and egg cells unite. ACOG explained that, since conception could not be “detected,” it was impossible to determine whether new life began at that point. It went on to decree that henceforth pregnancy would be defined as beginning only at implantation. This is the time, five to seven days after conception, when the newly formed person, only a few hundred cells in size, implants in the lining of the uterus.

Why did ACOG engaged in this pseudo-scientific sleight of hand? Its motives involved both morality and money. In 1965 Roe v. Wade was still 8 years away, and abortion was illegal throughout the United States. Most Americans still equated abortion with murder and wanted nothing to do with it. If hormonal contraceptives prevented implantation--and they do--then most Americans would reject them on the grounds that they caused early-term abortions.

By redefining pregnancy to begin after implantation, ACOG attempted to avoid the charge that its members, in prescribing hormonal contraceptives, were actually encouraging, if not performing, early-term abortions.

A recent survey shows us that most doctor's don't agree with ACOG.  57% of doctors said that pregnancy begins at conception.

Most of us know that life begins at conception, when the sperm and egg are joined together. It takes approximately a week for the tiny new life to travel through the fallopian tube, and implant itself in it's mothers womb.  It's in this time frame that Plan B can cause the uterus to be un-welcoming, causing the embryo to be dispelled, washed out with the menstrual flow.  

From Plan B's own website (click on picture to go to the page):

Doing a little research on women who have taken Plan B (or another brand) tells me that it should be prescription only for every woman, not just teens.  This is just a couple of examples from the linked website.  

Hey I had sex with my boyfriend and he used a condom. It didn't break and he pulled out way before he ejaculated. I took plan b right after we had intercourse, just to be safe. 

I took plan b 4 times after having sex. The first time that i took my period had just finished(around april 30). After the fourth time(may 15)

You'll also read how the woman's menstrual cycle is affected, leaving them questioning whether or not they are pregnant.  You'll read how some women spot for days, or bleed for weeks.  Google it yourself and you'll see many many stories like these.

Jill Stanek has a post up, where she quotes from another article, concerns which have already crossed the minds of many people, including myself.

What’s to stop teenage boys from pushing their… girlfriends to forget condoms, since Plan B can take care of everything afterward?

Why wouldn’t sexual abusers of young girls use Plan B to cover up the horror of ongoing abuse...?

Would a boy pay $50 to experience sex without a condom?  Yes he would.  Would an abuser pay $50 for the opportunity to continue the abuse?  Yes, he would. 

So again, why should FDA make this drug available to 11 year olds?  Simple. They shouldn't.

Insurance Companies Forced to Supply Free Birth Control

According to an article in Mother Jones, the Institute Of Medicine has recommended that private insurance companies be forced to pay 100% of the cost of birth control for their female policy holders, under Obama's healthcare law. 

The Institute of Medicine recommended on Tuesday that health care insurers cover the cost of birth control under the new federal health care law. This was just one of the findings on preventive health care services for women from the Institute, the branch of the National Academies of Science tasked with providing research and information on medical topics. But like pretty much everything dealing with women's health these days, this has turned into a debate about abortion.

The Department of Health and Human Services will get to make the ultimate decicion about whether insurers will be required to provide birth control free of charge, but this is a good indication that it will.

First, WHY should private insurance companies bear the cost for YOUR birth control?  Insurance companies are in business to make money.  You pay a premium, they pay if you get sick.  It's INSURANCE, not ENTITLEMENTSURANCE.

Take homeowners insurance for example.  It's something all homeowners should have, and something people with home loans are required to have.  Should State Farm do preventative termite treatments, just in case you get termites?  No, of course not.  What they expect, and rightly so, is that you do what you have to do to protect your home.  In cases where you have no control, such as a fire or tornado, the insurance company will pay to repair, or possibly replace, your home.

Second.  What do you think is going to happen to insurance premiums IF this is enforced?  Let me give you a hint.  Insurance executives aren't going to have it come out of their pocket, are they?  Insurance premiums will sky rocket to cover the cost of required add on's due to Obama's healthcare law.  Oh, wait, wait, wait... just in case you don't know, this is just another push to force private companies out of business, and force Americans into socialized medicine.  Any one who thinks otherwise hasn't been paying attention.

Back to the article, which stated:

But like pretty much everything dealing with women's health these days, this has turned into a debate about abortion.

The reason?

Specifically, they're concerned that this could lead to Plan B, or the "morning after pill," being covered by insurers

Indeed, that's something EVERY pro-life person in America should be concerned about.  If they force insurance companies to pay for contraceptives, you can bet EC (emergency contraceptives) won't be far behind.  Want to know what the MJ article says?  They quoted Jeanne Monahan, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council:

The other problem, says Monahan, is abortion. Specifically, abortion opponents argue that some emergency contraceptives — so called morning-after pills — can cause very early abortions by preventing the implantation of fertilized eggs into a woman's uterus.

"So those 7 to 10 days before a baby can implant, Plan B can prevent implantation and thereby cause the demise of that baby. So we'd be opposed to those drugs being included because they act as abortifacients."

And this was MJ's response:

Anti-abortion groups believe that this constitutes abortion, even though medical organizations like the National Institutes of Health and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have been clear that this is factually incorrect; pregnancy does not begin until a fertilized egg is implanted.

The medical definition of when pregnancy begins is completely arbitrary.  Oh, and if you have any doubt EC causes abortions, this is in the Q & A section of

Plan B One Step

How does Plan B One-Step™ work ?

Plan B One-Step™ is one pill that has a higher dose of levonorgestrel, a hormone found in many birth control pills that healthcare professionals have been prescribing for more than 35 years. Plan B One-Step™ works in a similar way to prevent pregnancy. Plan B One-Step™ will not affect an existing pregnancy.

Similar to an oral contraceptive?  Yes of course, but you won't see them blatantly admit that both oral contraceptives and EC can cause early abortions.  The last part of that quote is based on ACOG's redefining of when pregnancy begins.

It's political hocus-pocus. Logically, when the egg and sperm combine, a new life is formed, and begins to divide and grow in earnest.  EC prevents the implantation of this new life. They could say pregnancy doesn't begin until viability (at or near 24wks), but it wouldn't change the fact that it really begins at conception.

Personhood

It's all over the web, "Abortion Foes Push To Redefine Personhood", this particular article is on NPR's web-site. (I thought they were supposed to be non-biased) 

Pro-Lifer's can't deny it, that's exactly what we're are trying to do.  Since the 1973 decision in Roe v Wade, unborn human beings have been denied their personhood.  We're working to get it back for them.

An article I just read, Semantics Don’t Change Truth: The social motivations behind new definitions, explains the semantics abortion advocates use to deny the unborn their human rights.

But what does “being pregnant” really mean? Some clever sleight of hand has been underway for years to allow “guilt-free” abortions by redefining the words involved.

The article goes on to explain:

The move to redefine conception actually started in 1959 when Dr. Bent Boving at a Planned Parenthood symposium pointed out “the social advantage of [implantation preventatives] being considered to prevent conception rather than to destroy an established pregnancy.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists followed Boving’s advice in 1965 by adopting this definition: “conception is the implantation of an ovum.” Since fertilization cannot be detected until the time of implantation—when the physical connection to the mother’s body allows a hormone from the developing placenta to enter the mother’s bloodstream—the reasoning was that the beginning of pregnancy could be redefined to the time when we can medically detect it. This reasoning is tantamount to asking whether a man alone on a desert island really exists if no one knows he’s there. Such reasoning amounts to philosophical meandering, not science.

So this is how it plays out.  ACOG redefined when pregnancy begins to be at implantation.  Now, the term conception is being applied to mean at implantation.  Why?  Birth control pills and IUD's can act to prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.  Emergency Contraception, the morning after pill, supposedly prevents conception (implantation).  If fertilization is the same as conception (it is), then many birth control pills, IUD's, and the morning after pill would be considered possible abortifacients (they are).  After all, if you're not considered pregnant, then you're not considered to have had an abortion.  Make sense?

Had ACOG not changed the definition, pharmaceutical companies would have lost millions in sales.  Money drives big pharma, and big pharma's money drives politics.

PersonhoodUSA, other pro-life organizations, and mom and pop pro-lifer's like me, are working to give human rights back to the unborn, rights which never should have been taken in the first place.

Another reason to say no to EC

In response to the recent feminist clash over EC (Emergency Contraception) campaigns, Christie tells her EC story in the Abortion Gang blog.  She took EC about an hour after a condom failure.  She had what she thought was a period, indicating that the EC did what it was supposed to do. It didn't.

After 3 weeks of constant bleeding and painful cramps, I finally went to the doctor. As someone with a history of irregular periods, my GYN wasn’t too concerned. Except that, when she ran the pregnancy test, it came up positive.

It wasn't clear to me if Christie's pregnancy was intrauterine or ectopic.  But I would summize that EC can be dangerous.  I would guess that Christie had such a difficult time because she took EC, not because she was pregnant. 

Prochoicer's Embracing the F-Word

This was too good to pass on.  We need to add a ***PROFANE LANGUAGE WARNING***, because unlike the pro-aborts, we do care what people think about us.

Check out this twitter convo.  One party being @AbortionGang, the other, well there were several others. 

Do you see any 'holier than thou' in the picture above? I certainly do.  I see condescension, intolerance of another's ideas (jealousy maybe?), a bit of butt kissing, and a whole LOT of the pot calling the kettle black! 
Of course, I HAD to look further into it. What is all this about?  Seems there is competition in the pro-abort campaign world. 
It all started with this, from BackupYourBirthControl.org's Tumblr account. Spend some time there. See what they are teaching our children!

And AbortionGang's answer was this:

Just a few items from the AbortionGang post referenced above.  From Chere, the author:

The Top Six Insulting Fucking Reasons Why NARAL/NIRH Thinks You Should Use EC:

1) Because if you don’t remember his last name, you probably didn’t remember to use a fucking condom.

2) In the sober light of day, you don’t actually want to have his fucking children.
3) Getting pregnant after you didn’t even get off would be the fucking cherry on top.
4) It’s more effective than your other plan, which is watching a fucking Top Chef marathon.
5) You’ve spent 40 dollars on a lot stupider fucking shit before.
6) Women haven’t always had access to emergency contraception – be a fucking feminist already.
So listen up: I am ALL about backin’ up your bc with some ec, okaaaay, BUT the end does not in any way, shape or form justify the means.  Do not think that portraying us as flippant, self-centered and irresponsible is any sort of way to relay a message to us or encourage us to retweet/post/share some bullshit site.  We are much smarter, wittier and better at using f-words than you are.

A pro-abort blog trying to out F-word another pro-abort blog.  Way to go ladies!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!  You make it so easy to point out the absolute HORRIBLE role models you are.
Oh, about one of @AbortionGang's comments in the first picture.

The piece up today is the opinion of one of our writers, not all of us.

Can anybody say hypocrite? I can.  What about  'holier-than-thou'?

Not even yours abortion gang, not even yours.
Funny how using fancy words covers up the "I'm better than you" attitude.  It doesn't.

                *********U P D A T E*********

I saw this tweet by Steph Herold aka @IAmDrTiller aka @abortiongang.   Apparently, Feministing had a little jealousy of their own, and jumped right in the middle of the dispute. 

Vanessa writes:
Now on to the controversy. When I first saw that Tumblr, I was thrilled to see an organization (one I admittedly used to work for) take a refreshing, funny and bold messaging strategy

I guess what I’m saying is that demonizing an awareness campaign for addressing the fact that people have unprotected sex is shaming in itself. More specifically, it shames the people who have had those experiences, because sometimes — let’s face it folks, a lot of times – this is what happens. Saying that having unprotected sex is “flippant” and “self-centered” is shaming.

Sure Vanessa.  From your post:

I had consensual unprotected sex fully knowing the consequences of that action, and took EC the next day.
I’ve also had consensual sex with a person whose last name I didn’t know. Does that make me a “drunken slut”?

I suppose the answer to the last question would be - 'That depends on whether or not you were drunk'?
Feministing shaming AbortionGang for criticizing shaming BackUpYourBirthControl.  Next?