Plan B

So this is kind of heavy for a second post, but I HAVE to get it out. Plan B emergency contraceptive -- you know, the one everyone is arguing about -- is NOT the abortion pill. I repeat, Plan B is NOT the abortion pill. Every single major medical organization agrees with this assertion, from the FDA to the CDC to Planned Parenthood. Let's talk a little bit about the birds and the bees, and how Plan B differs from RU-486, or the abortion pill.

In general, a woman ovulates once every 28 to 30 days. The so-called "fertility window" extends for six days -- five days before ovulation, and the day of ovulation, with the best days to get pregnant being 1-2 days before and the day of ovulation. Intercourse AFTER ovulation results in pregnancy so rarely that the fertility percentage is essentially zero.

Plan B is intended to be taken within 72 to 128 hours of unprotected intercourse, and is most effective when taken within the first 24 hours. Its effectiveness at preventing pregnancy is 89% over the three days post-sex. The way Plan B functions primarily is through delaying ovulation, giving the sperm a chance to die off before the egg is released, thereby preventing the egg from being fertilized once it is finally released. Plan B also thickens the cervical mucus which hinders the sperm's swimming abilities. In this way, Plan B functions EXACTLY like oral contraceptives do, it's merely a concentrated dose and not one taken daily. There's a ton of differing evidence on whether or not Plan B affects the uterine lining (that which states it DOES prevent implantation of a fertilized egg being mostly outdated), but what IS factual is that Plan B is remarkably similar to a drug given to pregnant women to prevent miscarriages, thus through complete non-scientific conjecture, it seems unlikely that it affects the uterine lining in a negative way at all. As of 2010, there was overwhelming evidence that Plan B did NOT affect the uterine lining, and as of 2013, there is only more.

Now, RU-486, the abortion pill, functions primarily by causing a forced miscarriage -- also known in the medical community as a spontaneous abortion -- thus destroying fertilized, already-implanted embryos. This is abortion, not contraceptive, as Plan B is. The name itself, contra (against) + ception (conception, or the joining of sperm and egg), is pretty clear on its function. And yet this argument rages on.

No matter what side you fall on the abortion debate, leave Plan B out of it. Plan B is contraception, and only constitutes "homicide" if you think an individual ovum and several individual sperms are "persons," in which case, we have a lot of other problems to deal with.