How the Morning-After Pill Works
Emergency Contraception works to prevent or end pregnancy in three ways:
Preventing Pregnancy
1) It can inhibit ovulation, meaning that the egg is not released.
2) It can delay ovulation by altering the normal menstrual cycle.
Ending Pregnancy
3) It can be an abortifacient. Most people are unaware of this fact. If the woman is already pregnant, it aborts the tiny embryo before he/she can actually attach to the lining of his/her mother’s uterus. The pill alters the lining of the uterus, making it uninhabitable for a living, human baby. In other words, emergency contraception often acts as an abortifacient, by procuring an early abortion.
Understanding Conception, Fertilization and Pregnancy vs Implantation
Conception occurs at the moment of fertilization: When the sperm reaches and unites with the ovum and the joined genetic material of both parent cells yields a zygote - the life of a new human being. A woman is pregnant if her body contains a living, developing human being.
Therefore, pregnancy begins at the moment of conception, or fertilization.
When dealing with Emergency Contraception, it is important to understand that some groups have confused pregnancy and conception with implantation. Implantation is when the tiny embryo attaches him/herself to the lining of the mother’s uterus, from which he/she will gain the nutrition necessary for growth and development.
Redefining conception and pregnancy as implantation explains why some organizations can promote the morning-after-pill as a contraceptive, rather than an abortifacient. In doing this, they ignore the scientific claim that a new life begins with the formation of a zygote at fertilization.
It is important to communicate to both patients and health care providers the Morning After Pill’s potential to end an already established pregnancy in its early stages, because many people value human life from the moment of fertilization.
