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FDA To Consider New Form of Emergency Contraception

By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist Less than a decade after the rush to make the “morning after pill”, known as Plan B, more widely available to women to prevent “unplanned pregnancies,” the failure of the drug now has the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considering a new emergency contraceptive that studies show could be more effective in preventing pregnancy. USA Today is reporting that the FDA advisory committee has scheduled a June 17 meeting to consider approving ulipristal acetate, a “morning after pill” currently being sold in Europe under the brand name ellaOne. Available by prescription only, studies show ellaOne is longer lasting than Plan B, and can protect women for up to 120 hours – or five days – after having unprotected sex. Plan B, which is available in the U.S. without a prescription for women age 17 and older, is approved for use up to 72 hours after unprotected sex. In one study, researchers compared the results of 1,700 women who took either Plan B or ellaOne within  five days of having unprotected sex. In the ellaOne group, 15 got pregnant compared to 22 who took Plan B. Emergency contraception, which is a larger dose of the same hormones contained in the birth control pill, has a predominantly “anti-implantation” function, meaning it prevents a fertilized ovum from being implanted in the uterine wall by a process of altering the wall itself. As the Pontifical Academy for Life explains, “The final result will thus be the expulsion and loss of this embryo.” The same document explains that the use of linguistic obfuscation by the manufacturers and distributors of these products, such as calling the action of preventing implantation of an embryo an “interception” rather than an abortion, is only being used to prevent more widespread use of the drug by women who might not otherwise take it.  “ . .. (T)he proven ‘anti-implantation’ action of the morning-after pill is really nothing other than a chemically induced abortion. It is neither intellectually consistent nor scientifically justifiable to say that we are not dealing with the same thing.” The new drug, ellaOne is no different. Therefore, the Church “strongly urges everyone who works in this sector to make a firm objection of moral conscience, which will bear courageous and practical witness to the inalienable value of human life, especially in view of the new hidden forms of aggression against the weakest and most defenseless individuals, as is the case with a human embryo.” © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com

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