EC should unite sides


It is necessary for anti-abortion activists to stop blurring the lines between abortion and contraception. Emergency Contraception is merely a higher dose of the same hormones found in daily birth control pills.

Emergency contraception works just like daily birth control pills, delaying ovulation, preventing fertilization, or inhibiting the implantation of a fertilized egg.

Emergency contraception does not cause an abortion because it does not affect an established pregnancy. Emergency Contraception is categorized by the FDA as a method of birth control, and it is FDA approved for being both safe and effective. When taken within 72 hours of sexual assault or contraceptive failure, it can reduce the risk of unintended pregnancy by 89 percent.

Emergency contraception is the best way to prevent unintended pregnancy in cases of sexual assault or contraceptive failure. Survey data from U.S. abortion providers collected in a 2000-2001 study conducted by the Alan Guttmacher Institute and published in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health shows that emergency contraceptives accounted for up to 43 percent of the decrease in total abortions between 1994 and 2000.

Abortion opponents and pro-choice activists should be allies on the issues of sex education and contraception availability. Education and contraception reduce the need for abortion, so let those who oppose abortion come to the common ground and support prevention measures like emergency contraception.

Emily Nelson