© 2015 Victor R. Claveau, MJ
The Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles), a short treatise on Christian instruction, written in the autumn of the first century, is a work of considerable importance. Apart from its dogmatic content, it gives us a fairly accurate picture of what was, in those early times, the interior life of the Christian communities from the point of view of moral teaching, the practices they observed, and the form of government under which they lived.
The first part of the Didache is a moral instruction, which teaches us what we must do (The Way of Life, and what we must not do (The Way of Death). Once instructed, if the individual accepted the Way of Life, they were baptized into the community of believers.
Then, as now, proper choices had to be made in order to be accepted into the community and be identified as a Christian. Today, we are faced with similar moral choices almost on a daily basis.
The FDA approved the sale of the “Morning After Pill” (also called Plan B) over the counter (OTC) to women over 18 and made it available by prescription to teenage girls. The drug contains a higher dosage of ingredients than are used in prescribed birth control pills. It is odd that the lower dosage birth control pills require a prescription but the higher dosage “morning after” pill does not. Even standard dosage birth control pills are known to cause blood clots, heart attacks, strokes and other serious health risks.
All pro-life individuals should oppose Plan B not just because it’s artificial birth control, but because it causes a chemical abortion. Morning-after pills such as Plan B are intended for use after sexual intercourse. They are marketed and advertised as emergency “contraception” but that label is highly misleading.
Plan B can work before or after conception. It works before conception to delay ovulation or by reducing the sperm’s capability to join with the egg, and it works after conception by impeding the movement of the new embryo through the fallopian tube and by interfering with the process of implantation.
In fact, an extensive review of the literature on morning-after pills suggests up to 11 possible modes of action for the drug, seven of which work after conception, and therefore cause an abortion.
It used to be universally acknowledged that “pregnancy” began when human life began. That is, when a human egg was fertilized by a human sperm somewhere in the vicinity of the ovary, before the tiny growing embryo began the weeklong journey through the fallopian tube and into the uterus to burrow into the endometrium, a nourishing temporary home.
But the IUD changed all that. Not the process, of course, but the definition. Promoters of intrauterine devices in the 1960s lobbied successfully to “delay” the official start of pregnancy by 10 days, to the point of implantation, so that the IUD, which works post-fertilization, could still be labeled a “contraceptive” rather than an abortifacient. (See Note on IUDs)
Thus, while new human life begins when it always began, “pregnancy” is sometimes said to begin a week-and-a-half later, depending on what you’re reading.
The morning-after pill pushers are taking this confusion to the bank. Supporters of Plan B claim that it doesn’t cause abortion because it doesn’t interfere with pregnancy as they have decided to define it. And there’s no mystery why Plan B’s distributor says it’s just a contraceptive and doesn’t cause abortion — it wants to sell as many drugs to women as possible.
But preventing human life from beginning is not the same thing as destroying life that has already begun, and to many people it is a distinction that makes all the difference. Women deserve to know the truth about drugs that are marketed to them.
Putting Plan B on the shelves of a drug store is a very bad idea. First, there is the enormous problem that women are being misled about what this drug really does. But beyond that, this powerful drug has been associated with a heightened risk of ectopic pregnancy, a potentially fatal condition.
While initial clinical trials did not show a risk, experience with the drug in the United Kingdom and New Zealand has revealed the danger and prompted medical authorities to issue warnings to physicians. The UK’s Committee on Safety of Medicines recently found 12 ectopic pregnancies out of 201 pregnancies following use of the drug.
What’s more, the common side effects of the morning-after pill — nausea and abdominal pain — are also symptoms of ectopic pregnancy. Eliminating a doctor’s involvement would leave women and girls particularly vulnerable to a potentially fatal condition.
The FDA approval will begin a reckless experiment on the lives of women. This drug, with its serious risk of life-threatening consequences — for the woman or girl taking it and for her developing child — does not belong on the shelf of a drug store and at the reach of a frightened teen-ager.
While these physical dangers are real enough, we must also not discount the negative moral aspects of Plan B. Sexual intercourse was designed by God to be a sacred act within the context of marriage. Sacred, because He is intimately involved in the creation of human life. When we close our eyes to the will of God, our decisions become profane. Plan B ultimately facilitates the degradation of the marital act, by trying to eliminate the consequences of immoral choices. Our society has long been willing to sacrifice the life of innocents for sexual gratification and Plan B is another milestone along the road that facilitates the moral degradation of our society.
Note: There are two categories of IUDs: those that are medicated and release hormones (progesterone) and those that are not medicated. Although it is not known for sure how the IUD works, Studies of MIRENA® (levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system) prototypes have suggested several mechanisms that prevent pregnancy: thickening of cervical mucus preventing passage of sperm into the uterus, inhibition of sperm capacitation or survival, and alteration of the endometrium,[i] which makes it an abortifacient.
Half of intrauterine pregnancies that do occur with the IUD in place end in spontaneous abortion.[ii] [iii] Women who become pregnant with an IUD in place risk septic abortion (septic shock and death may occur); removal of IUD may result in pregnancy loss.[iv]
In addition, miscarriage, premature labor, and premature delivery may occur if pregnancy is continued with IUD in place.[v] Leaving the IUD in place during pregnancy also increases the risk that the mother will have severe pelvic infection that may lead to death.[vi] Getting any vaginal infection while using an IUD can increase the risk of developing a serious pelvic infection. This can result in a loss of fertility.[vii] Other serious side effects and complications from IUDs are spotting, bleeding, hemorrhage, anemia, uterine perforation, embedding, cervical perforation and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).
[i] Physician’s Desk Reference (2008), Thompson Healthcare Inc. Montvale, NJ, 2007, p. 765.
[ii] Lewit S. Outcome of pregnancy with intrauterine device. Contraception 1970; 2:47-57.
[iii] Vessey MP, Johnson B, Doll R, Peto R. Outcome of pregnancy in women using intrauterine device. Lancet 1974; 1:495-498.
[iv] Physician’s Desk Reference (2008), Thompson Healthcare Inc. Montvale, NJ, 2007, p. 766.
[v] University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), http://www.umm.edu/altmed/drugs/levonorgestrel
[vi] Bernstine RL. Review and analysis of the scientific and clinical data on the safety, efficacy, adverse reactions, biologic action, utilization, and design of intrauterine devices. Final Report, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare/Food and Drug Administration, Technical Resources Development. Seattle: Batelle Memorial Institute, 1975.
[vii] http://www.birth-control-comparison.info/iudinfo.htm