Plan B

Hey look, a happy post! Plan B (a.k.a. the Morning After Pill) is now approved for over-the-counter distribution to women 18 and over in the US. So what? many of you may think. Well, there's a big what. Plan B is a super-strong contraceptive, which if taken up to 72 hours after sex, can prevent pregnancy by either stopping the egg from accepting sperm or by preventing a ferilized egg from attatching to the wall of the uterus. Okay. There is a lot of controversy over this because some people see this type of contraceptive as an abortion. Which it isn't, but I'll get there later. These opponents of Plan B wanted it removed from drugstores even if the woman seeking it had a prescription. Some pharmacists even refused to distribute the pill to clients. The short of it is that some women who did not want to have a child, and in many cases had taken other precautions, were forced to become pregnant and seek full-scale abortions. These occurances became the most important battlegrounds for women's rights and medical science to fight against religious ideals that were harming them.

This issue and religion are inextricably intertwined. Many people believe that an abortion is murder because a human life is extinguished. I will not offer my opinion on that at this time. However, the facts as I understand them stand thus:

-An abortion is the removal of a blastocyst, embryo, or fetus from a woman's womb before it is capable of surviving in the outside world.


----BLASTOCYST


A blastocyst is a cluster of cells that are in the process of dividing, but have not begun to become specific to their jobs (i.e, skin cells, bone cells, muscle cells). It is therefore not remotely human or aware of anything yet.


----EMBRYO


An embryo is in the first stages of development, beginning to show arm- and leg-like protrusions, and posesses a rudimentary form of nerve tissue. An embryo is identifiable as such until it is old enough to be deemed a fetus.


----FETUS


A fetus looks somewhat like a human baby and is developing or has developed a nervous system, and is therefore theoretically aware of its surroundings. This term is usually used for the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy.

• Plan B stops pregnancy before even the blastocyst stage. It is therefore not an abortion.


• If a woman is not given access to emergency contraceptives such as Plan B, and she does not want to have a child, she will either have a full abortion or be forced to give birth anyway, which depending on the situation, could have severe repercussions on the mother's physical and emotional health, economic status, and/or job security.


• Often, and completely naturally, a fertilized egg will not lodge in a woman's uterus and will be expelled during the woman's next menstrual cycle. Plan B makes this natural process happen, just with more certainty.

I believe I've just proven that Plan B is neither an abortion nor a "murder weapon."

The other major issue at stake is women's rights. Our ability to control our bodies and what we do with them. Things that don't harm other people or involve illegal substances ought not to be meddled in by the government. Which is largely comprised of men, who wouldn't know what it's like to be a woman embroiled in all this. While I am not sexually active yet, there is an aura about the years ahead that I am not comfortable with. I worry about things that men will never have to. If, sometime in the I-really-hope-it-doesn't-come-out-like-this future, abortions and contraceptives are illegal, what will I do if, say, a condom breaks? What if I would not be able to support a child? Would the lawmakers and judges huff and puff and say "Well, you shouldn't have had sex"? In America, one is supposed to be able to do what one wishes with whomever one wants. That's one aspect of freedom. Unfortunately, sexual freedom in particular is getting a battering. Homosexuals and women find themselves attacked, for reasons that frankly I don't understand. The approval of Plan B as an over-the-counter medicine is a step forward for women, and I hope that when I grow up people will have learned to keep their laws off our bodies.