The Morning After Pill Essays - Hormonal Contraception,

The Morning After Pill The Morning After Pill The emergency contraception pill, often wrongly called the abortion pill, is a solution to the high teen pregnancy rate in the USA. There were 521,826 teen mothers in the United States in 1990 (Adolescent pregnancy 2). The United States also has the highest rate of pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth among teenagers than any other country (McKeown 1). Also, the Untied States spends an unbelievable 7 billion dollars a year on teen pregnancy costs (National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy 1). Not only does teen pregnancy cause problems for the babies of these mothers, and the United States tax payers, but the teen mothers themselves suffer too. Teen mothers are less likely to finish high school and are at a greater risk of abusing or neglecting their children (National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy 2). Teen pregnancy is a flaw in the United States that is not going away, but getting worse with every generation. Despite attempts to educate children about sex, contraception and a bstinence the rate of teen pregnancy is still extremely high. The emergency contraception pill, ECP, is a good solution for these pregnant teenage girls and for the United States tax payers. An argument that most people have is that the emergency contraception pill is an abortion pill, and should not be used to combat teen pregnancy. This assumption is not an accurate one. The emergency contraception pill is not anything like the RU-486 pill, which is known as the abortion pill. The way the RU-486 works, is when taken a chemical abortion occurs (Mathewes-Green 1). The pill can be taken up to 63 days from the first day of a woman's period. The way the RU-486 forces an abortion is when the pill is taken it causes the woman to have uterine contractions and miscarry within 4 hours. The fetus is expelled from the woman just as if she would have had a regular abortion (Mathewes-Green 2). The RU-486 is an abortion pill. Taking the RU-486 is like having a surgical abortion. The ECP should no longer be confused with the RU-486 pill. The ECP prevents conception instead of inducing a miscarriage (Rosenthal 2). The ECP is taken before fertilization has taken place, while the RU-486 pill is killing the child because it has already matured into a fetus. (Stewart 9). Many people think taking this pill is just like killing their child, as if they were taking the RU-486 pill or getting a surgical abortion. This is an incorrect assumption on their part. The ECP is taken within 72 hours of having unprotected sex, before the egg has been fertilized. This proves that the ECP is not interfering with reproduction (Stewart 9). Since the ECP is not an abortion pill, then how does it work? There are ten brands of emergency contraception pills, Ovral, Lo/Ovral, Levien, Nordette, Levora, Alesse, Tri-Levien, Triphasil, Trivora, and Ovrette. These brands contain different combinations of Norgestrel, Ethinyl Estradiol, and Levonorgestrel (Stewart 7). The emergency contraception pill is much like birth control pills that many women take on an everyday basis, but just contain a higher dosage of hormones then regular birth control pills (McKeown 1). The pills should be taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse to ensure effectiveness. Treatment is divided into two doses. The first dose is taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse. The second dose is taken within 12 hours of the first dose (Rosenthal 1). The pills should be taken with food and a anti-nausea pill such as Dramamine to reduce nausea . The doctor or health care provider will include an extra set of pills in case the patient vomits after tak ing a dose of the medication. If vomiting occurs within 2 hours of treatment, then the extra dose of pills should be taken. If vomiting occurs the patient should call the health care provider just to double check with them on what they should do (Stewart 7). The main side effect is nausea which is experienced by 50% of women who take these pills. Some very rare side effects include clots in the legs, lungs, stroke, high blood pressure and liver damage. These side effects are greater for smokers