In the United States, there are several groups that are against any form of contraception or abortion. One of these groups includes the “Pharmacists for Life International” (http://www.pfli.org/). PFLI consists of about 1500 Pharmacists across the United States who are opposed to filing prescriptions for contraceptive pills and for the “emergency contraception” pill, also known as the “morning after pill” because they believe the pills to cause abortion.
There is no scientific evidence to support this claim. Research suggests that these pills either stop ovulation or prevent sperm transport into the oviducts, thus preventing the sperm and egg from ever meeting. It further refutes the thought that these contraceptives in any way prevent the fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus (http://pt.wkhealth.com/pt/re/ajog/abstract.00000447-199911000-00043.htm;jsessionid=H40FJS1XhbBpjNKyxvqblQJVRQsv1kTTfGw5S0rvqg8kTDwGWjb1!-383192544!181195628!8091!-1).
Emergency contraception pills have proven to be both safe and effective. However, Most women are unaware that such a pill even exists. Only 1 percent of women in the U.S. have used emergency contraception, whereas between 2-3 percent have had an induced abortion (Bioethics and the New Embryology). I find it ironic that the pharmacists’ refusal to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception could result in many of those women having abortions. Perhaps, if in the situation, one should seriously contemplate if they are doing more harm than good.
I was looking at the "related blogs" links and one had quite a number of responses, mainly everyone giving their opinion on whether or not EC is a contraception or an abortion method.
One thing I noticed is that a lot of them that felt it is abortion believe so because one of the things it does is stops the embryo from implanting. Their claim is that life starts at the joining of the egg and sperm.
I disagree with this, which is why I, too, feel that EC is exactly that -- a contraceptive, for the simple fact that, regardless of the cause, a pregnancy neither starts nor continues unless the embryo implants. It's actually quite common for a fertilized embryo to not implant completely of its own accord, primarily because it has missed the 12-24-hour window of opportunity. On the other hand, it can start growing despite the fact that it did not implant on the uteran wall, but somewhere else, such as in the fallopian tubes or even outside the uterus (in extremely rare cases and usually due to a malformation of the uterus).
Pregnancy (in this case, the start of it) is a two-sided event. The first being the fertilization and implantation of the egg, and the second being the kicking in of the life support system on the part of the mother to keep the embryo alive. If even one of those three events does not occur, then a pregnancy will not happen. Period.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?