The science is in. The guys in the white lab coats have ruled. Is Plan B an abortifacient? Yes, it is.
The Plan B, “emergency” birth control pill can cause an abortion.
For those unfamiliar, Plan B is the popular brand name for levonorgestrel “emergency” contraception (LNG-EC).
The Linacre Quarterly published a study earlier this year concluding LNG-EC does have an abortifacient capability.
THE STUDY’S PURPOSE
The researchers described the purpose of their study in their abstract, which reads as follows.
“There has been much debate regarding levonorgestrel emergency contraception’s (LNG-EC’s) method of action since 1999 when the Food and Drug Administration first approved its use.
“Proponents of LNG-EC have argued that they have moral certitude that LNG-EC works via a non-abortifacient mechanism of action, and claim that all the major scientific and medical data consistently support this hypothesis.
“However, newer medical data serve to undermine the consistency of the non-abortifacient hypothesis and instead support the hypothesis that preovulatory administration of LNG-EC has significant potential to work via abortion.
“The implications of the newer data have important ramifications for medical personnel, patients, and both Catholic and non-Catholic emergency room protocols.
“In the future, technology such as the use of early pregnancy factor may have the potential to quantify how frequently preovulatory LNG-EC works via abortion.”
IN OTHER WORDS
Let us try to simplify this abstract of the nation’s longest continuous bioethics journal.
Plan B proponents have made claim of moral certitude that LNG-EC prevents conception, but never implantation. If this is true, then some people feel personnel at Catholic hospital emergency rooms can administer LNG-EC, conscience-free to rape victims.
The official journal of the Catholic Medical Association set out to determine if such claims help up to scientific study.
THE STUDY’S CONCLUSION
Is Plan B an Abortifacient?
The researchers have concluded that, indeed, Plan B does work as an abortifacient “quite often.”
Here is their lay summary, in full:
“How Plan B (levonorgestrel emergency contraception) works has been vigorously debated ever since the Food and Drug Administration approved it in 1999. Many doctors and researchers claim that it has either no—or at most—an extremely small chance of working via abortion.
“However, the latest scientific and medical evidence now demonstrates that levonorgestrel emergency contraception theoretically works via abortion quite often.
“The implications of the newer data have important ramifications for medical personnel, patients, and both Catholic and non-Catholic emergency room rape protocols.”
Of course, if you had just read Plan B’s own packaging, you would know this already. Plan B manufacturers admit their product can serve as an abortion-causing drug.
IN CLOSING
This study should immediately put to rest the practice of Catholic hospitals to prescribe Plan B to rape victims within their emergency rooms. Such a practice should be ended everywhere.
If a child may die as a result of a woman taking the Plan B pill, I am not sure how anyone in good conscience could encourage she take it. What she suffered is terrible. So let’s put an end to the violence, before another child is killed for the sins of his father.
(If you need a refresher on the three mechanisms of how birth control works, read my prior post here.)
YOUR TURN
What are your thoughts about Catholic hospital personnel prescribing Plan B, an abortion-inducing drug to rape victims?
How can we inform more people about this important study?
Please share below!
