How do you feel about this?

Just curious...

I'm really not for it since I don't know how they will sell it (can anyone at any age buy it?). What about young girls?

By Mommyathome on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 01:17 pm:

I've been watching "The View" yesterday and today. They've been discussing this pill. From what I understand it will just be readily available on store shelves. The new girl on "The View" was the only one really against it. She said that it shouldn't be available to just anyone (young girls). I tend to agree with her.
I think that if it is available it will increase the act of unprotected sex. That will most likely increase the number of STD cases, including AIDS. Women/Girls will have the opportunity to be less responsible with no consequence.

The other ladies on "The View" were a little more for the pill. They said that it would make it so there are not as many unwanted children out there. This could also be true. Some of the sexually active teens out there, and even women, are by no means fit to be a parent.

I'm kind of on the fence with this one. I see the points made on both sides of the argument and I haven't quite came to a conclusion.

My first reaction was "no, this is not right".

By Carolk on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 01:52 pm:

I would have to agree with the new girl on the view. I would have a problem with young girls being able to buy these pills.

I also agree with Mommyathome. You're going to have girls not worrying about protection. Also it might even make the boys pressure the girls into sex because then, the girls can buy the pills, just in case.

By Clair~moderator on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 03:57 pm:

While I am pro-choice I have a problem with this as I think any medication with possible serious side effects should be given under the care of a doctor.

By Pamt on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 - 05:38 pm:

As I am pro-life I am TOTALLY oppposed and was actually going to post this very same topic. I think it is very scary that we are now offering any female a "fast food abortion" with a medication that could have devastating side effects to some young girl who doesn't know better and will obviously have devastating consequences for a potential baby.

By Cheekymama on Sunday, February 15, 2004 - 03:43 am:

The "morning after" pill can't be compared to abortion because it doesn't end a pregnancy, it simply prevents one from ever occurring.

By Ladypeacek on Sunday, February 15, 2004 - 08:44 am:

I am also totally opposed, first i have 2 people that have had family die from this pill because the younger girls had no ides how to do it correctly so they should keep it as a prescription, and it DOES abort a fetus!!! It would be taken BEFORE sex if it were to prevent but its taken after when the sperm HAS entered and it kills it. Just becuase it is too early to show up on a test doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

By Ginny~moderator on Sunday, February 15, 2004 - 10:47 am:

I'm with Claire on this. I think it should be a prescription, but I think it should be a prescription ordered by one's regular gyne/ob with a phone call after the doc checks the patient's file for any contra-indications.

I do worry about the risk of increase of pressure on young girls, and that young girls (or women of any age) will allow themselves to be more easily pressured - and the risk of STDs. That risk, however, became a serious danger with the advent of the Pill.

Single female friends who take this risk seriously have told me that the only safe way to handle things if you intend intimacy but don't think you are ready for marriage yet is to insist on HIV blood tests first, use of condoms for at least 6 months, and another HIV test before stopping the use of condoms. And it only takes one outside contact to put both persons at risk. Monogamous fidelity has become an important health measure in addition to being an expectation when two people make a commitment (marriage, preferably, but any commitment).

By Mcrosby57 on Sunday, February 15, 2004 - 02:46 pm:

I live in Washington state where you can get the morning after pill with a consultation from certain registered and trained pharmacists. I used it once in an emergency. I was 44 at the time and just didn't want to be pregnant at that age. The condom had broken and it truely was an accident. I will never know if I was pregnant or not. The extra hormones in my body were not pleasant, to say the leas, when I took the medication. I had a migraine headache for days, my period was very, very heavy. I am appreciative of the opportunity I had for an easier and cost effective method versus an abortion, should I have actually become pregnant. I do not, however, think this pill should be available to every one as an over the counter medication. I think consulting with a pharmacists and having an age limit, like we do for alcohol and cigarettes would be good safeguards. If you have to go to the doctor to get this pill, I guess that would be fine, but we are adding to our medical costs. My medical insurance didn't cover the cost of the medication but it was still much, much cheaper than the medical costs of an abortion or a pregnancy, let alone a high risk pregnancy, which is what I would have had.

Just my opinion,
Mary

By Cheekymama on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 03:13 am:

Actually, it takes up to a couple of days for the sperm to reach the egg and fertilize it. And at that point, it's a zygote, not a fetus. What the pill does is prevent the egg from ever implanting in the lining of the uterus. The way I see it, if it never implants you're not ending a pregnancy because the pregnancy never exists.

By Cheekymama on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 03:19 am:

How the pills work:

If an ovum has not been recently released from an ovary, the medication will usually prevent it from being released.

If an ovum has recently been released, ECP may prevent it from being fertilized.

If the ovum has already been fertilized, it is believed that the pills will "alter the lining of the uterus inhibiting the implantation of the embryo. 1 The exact mechanisms of the latter two processes have not yet been proven by research.

If pregnancy has begun (i.e. the ovum has developed into a embryo which has already attached itself to the uterine wall), researchers report that the pills will have no effect. The pregnancy will continue.

(From http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_emer0.htm)