Abortive Effects of the Pill

I can't blame you for asking this, but you are asking a pro-life/pro-choice question. You want to know if it should be considered an abortion if the fertilized egg is not allowed to implant itself on the uteran wall, thereby triggering an aborted pregnancy.

The question ultimately comes down to the same question that separates most pro-life and pro-choice advocates: what is life? If you believe life begins at conception, I would think this is a legitimate concern. If you don't, it doesn't matter. You could go further and say, is conception the moment the egg is fertilized or the moment it implants itself.

Either way, this is still essentially a pro-life/pro-choice discussion because the beliefs of each are intrinsic to the discussion.

 

This is from the Planned Parenthood website:

Pills contain hormones that work in different ways.
* Combination pills prevent release of egg.
* Both types thicken cervical mucus to keep sperm from joining egg.
* Both types also may prevent fertilized egg from implanting in uterus.

So yes, if a woman's (or couple's) definition of abortion is broad enough to consider prevention of implantation as abortion, then the pill is not the right form of birth control for her/them. Condoms, Norplant or abstinence may be better options.

I personally haven't used the pill in more than a decade, because I'm not a big fan of synthetic hormones. We get enough estrogens in the foods we eat, I didn't think I needed anymore. There were side effects too (weight gain, mood shifts) that I wasn't a big fan of.

 

I'm sure Mr. JB wasnt a fan of the mood shifts either. I know I wasnt a fan of them when my wife was taking the shot. I forget the name. It was absolutely awful. When she stopped taking it she was a completely different person.

 

Yeah, women can be so inconsiderate when it comes to stuff like that.

 

I wasnt saying that she was being inconsiderate, every woman reacts differently. I was just joking with you and maybe I should have made it more clear. Sorry.

 

Like, I guess, like, I would only have an opinion on the, like pill, if I were, uhh... paying for it or something right?

Cause uhhh... I just have sex with 'em. I assume they're doing something about it, but another day, another babe, hehe, let 'em deal with it I say...

What was the question?

I new it wasn't safe here. ps I was kidding

 

Master - Thanks for the apology. I overreacted to your joke so I apologize as well. As for Mr. JB, we met after I had stopped taking the pill, so he avoided any emotional fallout.

 

Because there are several different types of pills (the mini-pill, for example, only uses synthetic progesterone and no synthetic estrogen) and different dose strengths, it's pretty hard to answer the question of whether your particular pill, on your particular day, is technically 'abortive' or not. However, if you're using a combination progesterone/estrogen pill it's pretty unlikely that you'll ovulate in the first place, so I wouldn't even worry about it. The only time you would have to think about something like that is with the use of the morning-after pill, the emergency within-seventy-two-hours-if-something-else-goes-wrong option, which I've done a few times in my life. Blurgh, talk about nausea. However, I don't think doctors here prescribe the morning-after pill very often, because every woman I've mentioned it to has never heard of it! It's not very well publicised in this country, it seems. Mrs JB, do you know what I'm talking about?

 

If your definition if abortion is wide enough you could belive that using condomes or celebacy or whatever also is abortion.

Ofcourse it's up to every woman to individually decide if she wants to use pills, but to call it abortion is just sick.

 

Abstinance=Abortion? That's a new one. Well we are all sinners, I guess!!

Seriously, there is a distinction here.

Abstinance always and condoms usually prevent conception. You can't abort what has not been conceived.

The workings of The Pill are more dicey and not so easy to dismiss as non-aboritve. Troubling issue here if you are honest.

 

I'm not sure if this was directed at me or just a general statement, either way you weren't paying attention to what we're discussing.

I'm personally pro-choice, however there are many in America who don't support abortion. It is their right to know if a method of birth control can be considered "abortive." The pil lcan be. Because, as we've already discussed, in some instances it prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. So technically, it can be considered an abortive method (though not all the time).

If it conflicts with a person's ideals, they have every right to seek other methods of birth control.

 

JuanValdez

In my opinion, doctors should always explain what a particular pill will do, however, it is not their job to pontificate on the "morality" question. If a woman goes in to get the pill prescribed as a method of bith control, then she should have already made up her mind as how she feels about its effects on conception.

On the other hand, doctors may prescribe the pill to women to combat hormone issues. If that's the case, then I do think he should be responsible enough to insure that the woman knows the ramifications as it pertains to conception. In that respect, prior to prescribing the pill, he ought to hand her a pamphlet which explains the facts of the pills effects on conception. He should then give her an opportunity to read the facts, seek alternate treatment and then acknowledge she is aware of the consequences. Perhaps that is being done, I don't know.

 

JV, I think doctors have a duty to protect their patients health, not give lectures in morality. Besides, I'm fairly sure every woman using the pill knows about the mechanism/effects of taking the pill. It's a hell of a drug to take if one doesn't know about the effects, at least.

I might add that I'm always amazed when men constantly raise this as a moral issue (as do I, but I try to suppress my concerns). I know everyone feels above their evolutionary past, but I have the intuition Sarah Blaffer Hrdy was spot on when she wrote (discussing Santorum, R, PA): Like all humans, and indeed as is typical of the entire Primate order, the senator exhibited an intense, even obsessive, interest in the reproductive condition of other group members. Like other high-status male primates before him, he was intent on controlling when, where, and how females belonging to his group reproduced....

Male fascination with the reproductive affairs of female group members predates our species.

I've bounced here and there, and am bored (for the most part) w/ Geology. My hero, growing up, was Dian Fossey... just because she was such a hard ass. I've recently fostered my interests in evolutionary biology and primatology (and am preparing for a graduate degree in population genetics/evolutionary ecology)... let me just say (w/o boring you w/ a billion anecdotes, examples, discussions of anisogamy, etc.) that it is of course adaptive for males to be obsessed with female reproductive life history. Pity... it leads to male coercion, as well as the trend for us to tell women what to do with their bodies.

 

Dimsie, we do have the morning-after pill here, but it is almost never presented as an option to women. Most doctors don't want to be burdened with having to prescribe it because of the "ethical" implications. A woman would most likely have to visit her local Planned Parenthood (and cross the gauntlet of picketers) to obtain it.

America is a strange country -- at times it is seemingly both anti-abortion AND anti-birth control/ sex education. That's usually is a disastrous combination for women (see sub-Saharan Africa for an example).

 

Isn't it also the responsibilityof the medical community to educate? Isn't the fact here that there are several varieties of The Pill and they work in dramatically different ways-- some of which might cause ethical concern to those who might use one or another of the forms?

Lecturing is but one way of educating...

 

sex makes everything so complicated!

personally i dont want to use the pill, but i dont see anything wrong with other women using it. i dont like anything that is going to make my body do weird stuff that it doesnt do naturally.

i think it's not cool when a woman has an abortion, but it's their choice. i would personally never end my own child's life. i also dont think that taking a pill daily that stops the baby making process from even starting is a form of abortion.