Should emergency contraception be legal?....
PRO:
Anything that prevents unwanted pregnancy should be absolutely legal, including these pills, for a wide range of reasons:
-While we’d all like to think that everyone is sexually responsible, only a fool would say that we are. In light of that reality, I’d say that we’re better off making an emergency option available to sexually irresponsible people than putting an innocent child into the care of people who don’t want children.
-Emergency contraception is indispensable for victims of rape and incest, and has been for decades. I can’t imagine what that trauma would be like, but the only thing I can think of that might be worse is a victim having to carry a child because she wasn’t using birth control.
-Other forms of birth control can cause serious side effects. Many varieties of birth control pills, for example, greatly increase the likelihood of heart attack or stroke. Emergency contraception only needs to be used after a woman has had relations, so it won’t carry the same risks, but it offers the same benefits.
-When it withheld its approval of the morning after pill, the FDA was sued by the Center for Reproductive Rights on the grounds that it was political, and not scientific, pressure that led to the decision. Who would you rather have telling you what you can put in your body - a doctor or lobbyist?
CON:
I’ll begin with the noted exception that what I have to say does not apply to sexual assault victims. For them, I think emergency contraception should be an available option.
For the rest of us, though, there is a moral question. Oral contraceptives are 99 percent effective; combining the use of normal birth control pills with condom use (a decision that protects against most sexually transmitted diseases, by the way), the chances of conception are less than one in 1,000. With such effective methods of prevention, why is it necessary to wait until after conception to take responsibility for our sexual behavior?
This concern ties into my religious beliefs, as well. Speaking as one who believes that life begins at conception, the morning after pill is nothing more than abortion without an appointment. Making these pills available just makes it more convenient to be sexually irresponsible, and it is the unborn that pay the ultimate price, because their mothers lacked the presence of mind to use protection in the first place. I know our society is becoming increasingly permissive, but emergency contraception is murder by afterthought. How much more brutal can we become?
Anything that prevents unwanted pregnancy should be absolutely legal, including these pills, for a wide range of reasons:
-While we’d all like to think that everyone is sexually responsible, only a fool would say that we are. In light of that reality, I’d say that we’re better off making an emergency option available to sexually irresponsible people than putting an innocent child into the care of people who don’t want children.
-Emergency contraception is indispensable for victims of rape and incest, and has been for decades. I can’t imagine what that trauma would be like, but the only thing I can think of that might be worse is a victim having to carry a child because she wasn’t using birth control.
-Other forms of birth control can cause serious side effects. Many varieties of birth control pills, for example, greatly increase the likelihood of heart attack or stroke. Emergency contraception only needs to be used after a woman has had relations, so it won’t carry the same risks, but it offers the same benefits.
-When it withheld its approval of the morning after pill, the FDA was sued by the Center for Reproductive Rights on the grounds that it was political, and not scientific, pressure that led to the decision. Who would you rather have telling you what you can put in your body - a doctor or lobbyist?
CON:
I’ll begin with the noted exception that what I have to say does not apply to sexual assault victims. For them, I think emergency contraception should be an available option.
For the rest of us, though, there is a moral question. Oral contraceptives are 99 percent effective; combining the use of normal birth control pills with condom use (a decision that protects against most sexually transmitted diseases, by the way), the chances of conception are less than one in 1,000. With such effective methods of prevention, why is it necessary to wait until after conception to take responsibility for our sexual behavior?
This concern ties into my religious beliefs, as well. Speaking as one who believes that life begins at conception, the morning after pill is nothing more than abortion without an appointment. Making these pills available just makes it more convenient to be sexually irresponsible, and it is the unborn that pay the ultimate price, because their mothers lacked the presence of mind to use protection in the first place. I know our society is becoming increasingly permissive, but emergency contraception is murder by afterthought. How much more brutal can we become?
COMMENTS
I agree completely with the CON. I think the PRO is an immoral brute whose thinking is a big part of what's going wrong with our society. We all know if you jump out of a tall building you are going to die, if you want to live stay inside. We all know where babies come from, if you don't want one then have protection or keep your pants on. Murder is murder no matter how you look at it. Just because the fetus can't cry out in pain that we can hear doesn't make it not human. We cannot be allowed to disposed of it at our desecration. You can't go into a hospital and beat a person who is in a coma to death with a baseball bat can you... That would be considered murder. Killing any human from fetus to elderly is murder.
Connie you are in idiot. Blinded by religion and dogma. emergency contraception is a must. It is estimated that the world population will double in the next 50 years. Where are we going to find the food to feed all these people considering we can't feed the people that exist now? The human population is out of control. There must be population controls of some kind in order to ensure the continuation of our species at sustainable levels. Also, considering the fact that many children are born to parents that can't raise them properly, beat them, and lead them to a life of crime, poverty, drugs and prison, it seems to me that we would want to limit the number of these children who are born into hopeless situations and short lives. The problem with this world and this country is that people like you base your decisions on the teachings of an ordinary man (Jesus) and an invisible man in the sky (god)which only leads to irrational decisions and choices. Religion has done nothing for the human race but cause senseless killings and more wars than can be counted. Religion was invented by man to keep other men and women in line and under their control. Wake up. We will only make this world a better place when we bury god once and for all and declare him dead. We must start believing in each other and relying on each other as opposed to a made up spirit that has a list and is checking it twice and deciding whether we are naughty (hell) or nice (heaven).
With anything, there is a time and a purpose for which emergency contraception is used. I don't believe that it should be used instead of regular contraception or in any flippant manner but there is a definite need for emergency contraception.
Jen I think you are very wrong. I never mentioned anything about religion. I said it's murder. Last I knew murder was a Non-religious concept. Murder is murder it's that simple. Everything you say is wrong from a moral standpoint. Not a religious standpoint. If we were to listen to you we'd start killing the elderly or homeless. No body cares about them right? Kind of like the innocent fetus. Just kill it cause the world is over populated. You said "There must be population controls". There is you idiot it's been around since before I've been born. Regular old contraception!!!! It's worked in the past it will work in the future.
Actually, conception isn't immediate, it can take up to three days after intercourse for the spermatozoa to fertilize the egg. The morning after pill doesn't abort a conception that's already occurred, only prevents conception from happening, much as regular birth control pills do. There is some debate about whether improper dosage can cause an unintended abortion, but there is very little evidence to support this. In point of fact, the morning after pill is mostly the same compounds as a birth control pill, just in more concentrated dosages. Some religions argue that conception happens directly at intercourse, which if that's your view is another matter entirely I'll grant. Finally, and I admit this merely semantics, but it's a very strong pet peeve of mine; the word "Murder" by definition ONLY refers to an illegal act of killing. So, you can say it's unethical, but you can't call it murder, unless you're just going for rhetoric. On a different note, I'll admit I don't like the idea a lot of younger people get that they can have unsafe sex without risking pregnancy because of this pill. I suppose this is a case of one must choose the lesser of two evils, no?
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