Articles about Emergency Contraception
September 25th, 2008 • Contributed by Dino Corvino
[From Guttmacher Institute]
September 26 marks World Contraception Day, which highlights the many ways using modern birth control methods benefits women and their partners. Access to contraceptives allows couples worldwide to make responsible decisions about when to become parents and also helps secure women’s full and equal participation in modern society. Using any form of contraception dramatically reduces a woman’s chance of getting pregnant and either having an abortion or giving birth to a child she did not intend. The most effective methods virtually eliminate that risk.
Continue reading this article »
No Comments • Posted in: Policy, Emergency Contraception, Birth Control
August 18th, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Family Planning Health Services (FPHS) put 20,000 emergency contraceptive pills (Plan B) in the hands of 10,000 women last year. Is preventing unwanted pregnancy as simple as that? Yes. No.
Last week the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics published a study showing that urban minority teen girls lacked knowledge about emergency contraception. Almost all of the sexually active adolescents had heard of emergency contraception, but were not knowledgeable about how it works or when to take it. Girls who were not sexually active had less information.
Continue reading this article »
No Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
August 18th, 2008 • Contributed by Frances Irwin
A few years ago, Family Planning Health Services took a look at whether or not minors in Wisconsin had access to emergency contraception and/or information about how to get emergency contraception or how it works. Here’s the picture from family planning clinics, emergency rooms, and crisis pregnancy centers.
2006 Emergency Contaception Survey Report
No Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
July 31st, 2008 • Contributed by Frances Irwin
On July 23, 2008 members of the House and Senate sent letters to President Bush and Health and Human Services Secretary Leavitt protesting the proposed rule change that would define most types of birth control as abortion. Here you’ll find a list of all the Representatives and Senators who signed the letters. Please take a moment to say thanks by clicking on their name.
Continue reading this article »
4 Comments • Posted in: Policy, Emergency Contraception, Action, Birth Control
July 23rd, 2008 • Contributed by Dino Corvino
[We received this as a comment, and thought it warranted being moved up to its own post. Dino]
The Association of Reproductive Health Professionals issued this alert to it’s membership. Please consider following this link to easily and electronically express your opinion about this proposal to HHS Secretary Leavitt.
http://capwiz.com/nfprha/home/
Dear ARHP member,
We have an urgent matter to bring to your attention. Recently, the Bush Administration proposed new regulations under which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would redefine pregnancy as beginning prior to implantation and adopt a definition of abortion that includes many forms of contraception, including some birth control pills, IUDs, and emergency contraception. Both of these proposed definitions are alarmingly at odds with science. This regulation would also allow health care providers and facility staff to refuse to provide any medical service – if doing so would violate their moral beliefs.
Continue reading this article »
No Comments • Posted in: Policy, Emergency Contraception, Action
May 1st, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Are we talking about ‘the facts of life’ anymore, or have we renounced the realities of biology and science in favor of protecting our beliefs?
May 7th is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Day and a good time to study what’s working and what’s hindering out national progress. It would also be a good time for parents of teens to consider their own vital role in sex education.
Continue reading this article »
No Comments • Posted in: Abortion, Sex Ed, Policy, Emergency Contraception, Birth Control
April 24th, 2008 • Contributed by Dino Corvino
I found this article in the Green Bay Press Gazette today. Given the topics it discusses, I thought it would be a perfect fit for BTW.
Rape victims have option of getting emergency contraception
By Sara Boyd
Continue reading this article »
No Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
March 25th, 2008 • Contributed by Lon Newman
Can we get a break (make that a ‘Spring Break’.) from uncontrolled irresponsible immature behavior that increases the risks of unwanted pregnancies and abortions? In a media-salacious example of the national debate, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s (PLW) Spring Break campus advertising campaign on Emergency Contraception (EC-Plan B) seems as Bacchanalian in its misinformation as the sexual misbehaviors it opposes. The campaign arguably could increase unwanted pregnancies and abortions.Pro-Life Wisconsin’s campus newspaper ads state: “Be good to yourself over spring break. Make smart choices the night before … that way you won’t have any emergencies to deal with the morning after!” Good points . . . everyone agrees that good responsible sexual choices are safer, healthier, more respectful, and less likely to result in life-changing negative consequences — just plain smarter.
. . . but the PLW ad goes on to state that; “emergency contraception is a powerful, high dose of steroids that tricks a woman’s body into thinking it is pregnant” and can cause “chemical abortions and deadly blood clots.” PLW promiscuously crammed as many misleading and unsupported claims into one short statement as it possibly could, but the main and most clearly refutable points are often heard and too often echoed across the country: ‘chemical abortions’ and ‘blood clots.’
The latest World Health Organization information is explicit that EC works by preventing ovulation and fertilization. There is no evidence that EC prevents implantation and there is substantial evidence that Plan B’s rate of not preventing implantation of a fertilized egg fully explains the pregnancies that occur after the pills have been taken. In other words, the primary argument that opponents of EC make (we should not risk the destruction of a single fertilized egg) is scientifically, theoretically, and statistically head-of-a-pin microscopic.
Weighed against the larger risks of an unwanted, untimely, or risky pregnancy or perhaps an abortion at a later stage of a real pregnancy, the microscopic objection should vanish completely. And, since unlike many forms of hormonal birth control, Plan B does not contain estrogen, PLW’s warning about ‘blood clots’ seems to be based on their own beliefs and very little else. Again, weighing the risks of a real pregnancy against the theoretical . . . this argument should also disappear completely.
What will not disappear and what is impossible to ignore in this debate about possibilities, is the question of why an organization opposed to abortions would discourage women at risk of unwanted pregnancy from acting to prevent those pregnancies? Why is an organization repulsed at the idea of risking a single fertilized egg acting in a way that puts women (including those who will subsequently abort an unwanted pregnancy) at a greater risk of pregnancy?
To a rational person seeking to reduce abortions, an unproven possibility of the presence of a fertilized egg and a theoretical possibility of preventing a potential implantation on the uterine wall is simply not morally or ethically equivalent to an unwanted pregnancy. The imbalance is dramatically and clearly shown when the woman at risk is likely to have an abortion if she becomes pregnant.
Spring break is a good time for anti-abortion advocates and supporters of accurate safer-sex education alike to call for sexual responsibility and restraint. Perhaps we can agree to exercise responsibility and restraint in our advertising too. Opponents of abortion, like Pro-Life Wisconsin, could demonstrate that they will not risk increasing the number of abortions to quench an insatiable desire for public attention.
No Comments • Posted in: Sex Ed, Emergency Contraception
March 14th, 2008 • Contributed by Dino Corvino
I found this story in our local paper, about the actions of Governor Jim Doyle. I was wondering if you thought this was a success? Have we seen this sort of work show up in other states?
Bill provides contraceptives for rape victims
No Comments • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
November 8th, 2007 • Contributed by Below The Waist
This article by Belle Taylor-McGee was originally posted on rhrealitycheck.org. In it, Ms. Taylor-McGee takes an in depth look at why access to EC is vital to improving reproductive health for women in the United States.
Don’t expect any confetti and balloons or in-depth media analysis greeting the first anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision to grant over-the-counter (OTC) status to Plan B emergency contraception. Nor should you expect the FDA to issue any formal statement about the historic anniversary. Certainly, this is not due to a lack of material. After all, Plan B is by far one of the most studied and written-about products in FDA history - with volumes of scientific and medical data about its use and effectiveness.
Continue reading this article »
1 Comment • Posted in: Emergency Contraception
