A question about abortifacient drugs

[SoulSolace]

With the recent decision of the SCOTUS I have been doing research on the drugs that Hobby Lobby doesn’t have to cover.
The primary complaint of Hobby Lobby was that they would not provide drugs that are abortifacient in nature. It is my understanding that ‘plan B’ is one of those drugs.
Herein lies the problem; I cannot find any information online, other than one very conservative website, that backs up the theory that plan B is abortifacient.
It would be nice to have some kind of good science to refer to when debating with others about this.
(I do know the warning that the FDA has put on the product information.)

Being staunchly Catholic, I don’t feel it is okay to use any kind of birth control btw.

Does anyone know where I can find the needed info?

Thank you and God bless.

 

[Milasol]

The thing is that the plan b can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the wall of the uterus by preventing tubal transport. Meaning that it causes a fertilized egg not to be able to implant and grow.

Many times it is just an egg but many times it is a fertilized egg.

I wouldn’t trust any non-conservative source though. They will be trying to hide fertilization and say it is just sperm or egg alone that tubal transport disruption prevents. Not true.

Here is a link to the explanation of plan b provided by the pharma telling you what the pill does in point 12

12 CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY
12.1 Mechanism of Action
Emergency contraceptive pills are not effective if a woman is already pregnant. Plan B
One-Step is believed to act as an emergency contraceptive principally by
preventing ovulation or fertilization (by altering tubal transport of sperm and/or ova). In addition, it may inhibit implantation (by altering the endometrium). It is
not effective once the process of implantation has begun.

Notice how they don’t tell you how if one takes the pill after conception and the fertilize egg is not implanted yet, it will prevent the implantation of that person.

planbonestep.com/pdf/PlanBOneStepFullProductInformation.pdf

Here are some clinical studies: (notice how even after taking the pill still some fertilized eggs implanted)
A double-blind, randomized, multicenter, multinational study evaluated and compared the efficacy and safety of three different regimens for emergency
contraception. Subjects were enrolled at 15 sites in 10 countries; the racial/ethnic characteristics of the study population overall were 54% Chinese, 34%
Caucasian, and 12% Black or Asian (other than Chinese). 2,381 healthy women with a mean age of 27 years, who needed emergency contraception within 72
hours of unprotected intercourse were involved and randomly allocated into one of the two levonorgestrel groups. A single dose of 1.5 mg of levonorgestrel (Plan
B One-Step) was administered to women allocated into group 1. Two doses of 0.75 mg levonorgestrel 12 hours apart (Plan B) were administered to women in
group 2. In the Plan B One-Step group, 16 pregnancies occurred in 1,198 women and in the Plan B group, 20 pregnancies occurred in 1,183 women. The number
of pregnancies expected in each group was calculated based on the timing of intercourse with regard to each woman’s menstrual cycle. Among women receiving
Plan B One-Step, 84% of expected pregnancies were prevented and among those women taking Plan B, 79% of expected pregnancies were prevented. The
expected pregnancy rate of 8% (with no contraceptive use) was reduced to approximately 1% with Plan B One-Step.

 

[SoulSolace]

Thank you Milasol, this is very helpful information.

God bless.

 

[WKW_69]

It doesn’t matter. SCOTUS rulings allows a ‘closely held’ business to opt out of any government regulation that is against the owner’s religion. Just yesterday SCOTUS expanded the exclusion to all birth control.

 

[naomily]

Plan B does not cause abortion and the large number of babies born in spite of it should be proof. There’s a slight chance it can disrupt the reproductive system enough to bring on early menses and in the process flush out the fertilized egg, but that is NOT the primary purpose. My Xanax prescription could do the same but it certainly is not an abortifacient.

 

[Milasol]

There’s a slight chance it can disrupt the reproductive system enough to bring on early menses and in the process flush out the fertilized egg, but that is NOT the primary purpose.

Even if there is a 0.000001% chance…

It disrupts tubal transport before and after conception.

The fact that it worked on some women and other it didn’t and got pregnant is actual proof that it can flush out a fertilized egg.

In the clinical trials many of those women who didn’t get the fertilized egg implanted would have gotten it implanted if it wasn’t for tubal transport lining disruption.

 

[naomily]

Even if there is a 0.000001% chance…

It disrupts tubal transport before and after conception.

The fact that it worked on some women and other it didn’t and got pregnant is actual proof that it can flush out a fertilized egg.

In the clinical trials many of those women who didn’t get the fertilized egg implanted would have gotten it implanted if it wasn’t for tubal transport lining disruption.

The purpose of Plan B is to stop ovulation. That’s it. If the egg has already been released and is fertilized, than it is ineffective.

There’s a chance it can disrupt a VERY early pregnancy (we’re talking hours to days here) and it’s totally cool if that’s a chance you’re unwilling to take. However, if so, it’s only fair you oppose the million other drugs that can disrupt pregnancy.

 

[Milasol]

The purpose of Plan B is to stop ovulation. That’s it. If the egg has already been released and is fertilized, than it is ineffective.

There’s a chance it can disrupt a VERY early pregnancy (we’re talking hours to days here) and it’s totally cool if that’s a chance you’re unwilling to take. However, if so, it’s only fair you oppose the million other drugs that can disrupt pregnancy.

I oppose all of them. ALL

There is a reason why we,women, when we are pregnant, can’t take many medicines.
Even some tests are dangerous too.

We are not just carrying a clump of cells but a soul destine for eternal glory. You included.

 

[naomily]

I oppose all of them. ALL

There is a reason why we,women, when we are pregnant, can’t take many medicines.
Even some tests are dangerous too.

We are not just carrying a clump of cells but a soul destine for eternal glory. You included.

So you believe all sexually active women should abstain from drugs that might cause a spontaneous abortion if she were to become pregnant? So, if I were a married woman having a healthy sexual relationship with my male spouse, I would be unable to take my anxiety medication because if NFP/the condom/etc. failed, it might negatively affect any growing fetus? Should I also abstain from alcohol and shellfish high in mercury?

The point I’m making is, yes, Plan B can cause miscarriage, but so can a lot of things. Fetal loss of life, however, is not the pill’s primary purpose and any such effects are unintended. If you want to single out Plan B because it might cause miscarriage, then you have to apply the same treatment to other drugs. Most women will refuse to live under the assumption that they might get pregnant.

This doesn’t mean that any loss of life caused by Plan B isn’t appropriately tragic. I think it’s important in these discussions to keep in mind, also, that in the first few weeks of pregnancy, miscarriage often occurs spontaneously and for no apparent reason. A million and one things can go wrong, especially to a fertilized egg that has not yet implanted.

I don’t have a horse in this race as an unmarried, single woman but I’m interested in the ramifications of what you’re describing. I’ve never quite understood a lot of conservative opposition to Plan B (and most contraception). It seems founded on dubious science, but I’d like to be proven wrong.

 

[Milasol]

So you believe all sexually active women should abstain from drugs that might cause a spontaneous abortion if she were to become pregnant? So, if I were a married woman having a healthy sexual relationship with my male spouse, I would be unable to take my anxiety medication because if NFP/the condom/etc. failed, it might negatively affect any growing fetus? Should I also abstain from alcohol and shellfish high in mercury?

The point I’m making is, yes, Plan B can cause miscarriage, but so can a lot of things. Fetal loss of life, however, is not the pill’s primary purpose and any such effects are unintended. If you want to single out Plan B because it might cause miscarriage, then you have to apply the same treatment to other drugs. Most women will refuse to live under the assumption that they might get pregnant.

This doesn’t mean that any loss of life caused by Plan B isn’t appropriately tragic. I think it’s important in these discussions to keep in mind, also, that in the first few weeks of pregnancy, miscarriage often occurs spontaneously and for no apparent reason. A million and one things can go wrong, especially to a fertilized egg that has not yet implanted.

I don’t have a horse in this race as an unmarried, single woman but I’m interested in the ramifications of what you’re describing. I’ve never quite understood a lot of conservative opposition to Plan B (and most contraception). It seems founded on dubious science, but I’d like to be proven wrong.

If one knows one is pregnant then one must abstain from any danger that can come to the baby.

Plan b is taken when that possibility of being pregnant exists there.

If I was suspecting I was pregnant I wouldn’t take any drugs or other substances that could harm the baby.

And we can compare something one does consciously to a natural miscarriage really

And my opposition to contraception is not based on science but rather based on many other things. Primary that contraception has done more harm to single young girls than any other notion. Another that we are not animals. Another that lust is not love.

I work for a women crisis center and 99% of the women who come in were using contraception. The society today tells you to use contraception that they are a mere piece of meat with physical attributes for the pleasure of others, but nobody told them about virtue. Nobody told them that lust does not equal love. They come heart broken and then society tells them to have an abortion. That is the cycle.

 

[Hockeygurl]

from The National Catholic Register: ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/what-abortifacient-and-what-it-isn’t

When church officials argue that the IUD could be an abortifacient, they are relying on research from the 1970s that indicated that the IUD could affect an embryo’s ability to implant. Decades of research since has demonstrated that the IUD actually works much earlier in the reproductive process than once thought. It does not destroy an implanted embryo. Approximately one in 100 women using the IUD get pregnant.

Rather, the IUD, which is a T-shaped device inserted into the uterus by a medical professional, works by affecting the way in which sperm move. Some IUDs release a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone called progestin, which thickens cervical mucus making more difficult for sperm to enter the uterus. Few sperm are able to reach the fallopian tubes, and those that do reach the site of fertilization are usually incapable of fertilizing an egg.

The drug Plan B is also artificial progestin and therefore impedes the sperm from entering the uterus in the same way as the IUD. But the drug can also stop the ovaries from releasing an egg. If an egg has already been released, Plan B can slow down the movement of the egg. By slowing down both the egg and the sperm, it prevents fertilization.

The effectiveness of Plan B drops considerably if given more than two days after intercourse. But even at its peak of effectiveness, it is only works 50 percent to 80 percent of the time. Some have argued that Plan B acts after fertilization by changing the uterine lining is such a way that implantation is impossible.

But according to Dr. Sandra Reznik, who also wrote for the January-February 2010 edition of CHA’s Health Progress, if Plan B “involved a change in the endometrium, then one would expect a higher rate of success [in preventing pregnancy]. … Taken together, there are biological, clinical and epidemiological data clearly indicating that Plan B’s mechanism of action involves only pre-fertilization events.”

For five years, staff at CHA collected, reviewed and summarized the great majority of articles on Plan B’s mechanism of action, Ron Hamel explains in his article: “Virtually all of the evidence in the scientific literature indicates Plan B has little or no post-fertilization effect … on the endometrium that would make it inhospitable to implantation.”