In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in favor of Hobby Lobby in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, previously titled Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby (here’s why — scroll down to “lower court history”), I continue to be bothered by one reigning fact: the effects of Plan B and the similar drug known as Ella (approved by the FDA in 2010) are widely and wildly misunderstood. I do realize that no matter what, some people are going to persist in their beliefs that these drugs act as abortifacients. At it’s most very basic, this is defined as “an agent (as a drug) that induces abortion;” however, it can also be defined as “something that interrupts an established pregnancy” (NPR source). So, when you get down to the nuts and bolts of the argument, the persistence of the belief that these contraceptives cause abortion depends on a person’s specific view of conception.
Many argue that conception is defined as the exact moment a sperm comes in contact with an egg and becomes a fertilized zygote. In case it’s been a little while since high school biology, a zygote is the initial cell formed when two gamete cells (aka an ovum, or egg, and a sperm) come in contact with each other and are kind of like this:
They do a little tango and have a chat, and are like, yeah, ok let’s form the initial cell that could become an embryo. But, here’s the deal — it’s not technically an embryo yet. Here’s why: after an egg is fertilized and closes up shop against the other swimmers (I mean, not all of us can be Michael Phelps), it not only can take more than ten hours* for the sperm and egg to form the halves of genetic material they are going to contribute, but also, once this has occurred, the cell hangs out in the fallopian tube for 2-4 days as it starts to divide and multiply. It then makes its leisurely way through the fallopian tube toward the uterus and the uterus lining that may or may not be getting ready to host the cells. “May or may not be getting ready?” you might ask. “But, what does that mean?” I say may or may not because you might be surprised to discover that “scientists estimate that, at a minimum, two-thirds of fertilized eggs fail to implant. Some scientists estimate that the number may even be as high as 80 percent.” Here’s the source of that statistic and, for the record, I am very impressed by The National Catholic Reporter: The Independent News Source, which seems to publish well-informed articles from authors of various political persuasions. I clicked on the link expecting to find primarily conservative viewpoints and was pleasantly surprised — I guess that’s my bias (I was raised Catholic though, so it’s a personal bias formed from specific experiences). Anyhow, my point is, women often naturally shed fertilized eggs without the aid of any hormones other than those produced within their own bodies. Ok, so the backlash to that comment will be, “Well, they do it naturally, so it can’t be abortion if it isn’t aided by the woman.” Ok, fair. I just want to point out that it takes a long time for the embryo to become an embryo, and a longer time for it to nestle into what will become its womb, if it accomplishes that feat at all. So, at what point is it considered a viable embryo? Once it’s implanted in the uterus. If it doesn’t make it, a baby isn’t formed.
Okay, so, I generally do not trust WebMD, or should I say the way WebMD enables self-diagnoses, since one time I was throwing up and my good friend, with my sister, decided, based on my symptoms, that I was going to die from sugar poisoning (actually, I had the flu). Nonetheless, in case all of that was too much to wade through, or if you skipped it cause I’m not talking about the uber-political stuff yet, WebMD does a decent job of summarizing the process of becoming pregnant in easy to follow steps. I must say though, if you don’t know how babies are made by now, you might need to read a few other articles and wikipedia pages and come back to this blog post…
Yeah, yeah, so? Okay, here is where I get to the heart of my argument: Plan B, alias the morning-after-pill, and Ella, alias the week-after-pill (though it only works for up to 5 days) are said to induce abortions. In fact, this is not true of either drug. First, I want to reiterate that these drugs are FDA approved and classified as contraception. That means the Federal Drug Administration has ruled it safe for human use and that it has similar characteristics to and functions like other forms of contraception (except abstinence and withdrawal, which Planned Parenthood does include in its list of birth control methods). And, FYI, the FDA does have a separate category for drugs considered abortifacients, in which the drug RU486, or Mifeprex, is included. In case you’re curious, no, RU486 is not covered by the Affordable Care Act, alias Obamacare, and had no standing in the Hobby Lobby decision. What Plan B actually does is provide a couple fail-safes in the event of an error.
Here I want to pause to have you acknowledge that accidents do happen; condoms break even if they’re not expired, women miss a day of the pill, two people get drunk, etc. Even if you feel like judging these accidents (I mean, I guess that’s your prerogative), please remember that there are also those who do not have access to proper education about pregnancy and contraception (and, on that note, I take back my earlier comment in which I joked about not knowing how babies are made), and of course there are women who need access to these pills due to sexual assault (even avid pro-life supporters have trouble parsing this side of the debate).
So, with that in mind, like I said Plan B and Ella provide a couple fail-safes on the way to becoming pregnant (as do other forms of the pill). First, if you have not ovulated, it prevents ovulation. If you have ovulated, it instead slows down the movement of the egg and the movement of the sperm so they have a harder time reaching each other. That’s where it ends. There is a very common and rampant misperception that Plan B and Ella also cause the uterus to shed its lining, taking the implanted embryo with it. But here’s the kicker — the majority of research is showing that this is just not true (refer again to the NPR article hyperlinked above). These drugs do not cause you to shed an implanted embryo, nor does it make it harder for the embryo to implant in the uterus. Bottom line? If you’re pregnant, you’re pregnant. Case closed.
Finally (for now, anyway), I want to mention, for the sake of imparting all the facts, that the Supreme Court actually vetoed Hobby Lobby’s argument against paying for Plan B on religious grounds as a viable cause for giving them exemption from the provision of the Affordable Care Act that mandates that corporations pay for contraception as part of their health care packages. “In Justice Alito’s words, the administration’s ‘main argument’ on substantial burden was that ‘the connection between what the objecting parties must do (provide health-insurance coverage for four methods** of contraception that may operate after the fertilization of an egg) and the end that they find to be morally wrong (destruction of an embryo) is simply too attenuated.'” This means that had the case rested solely on this claim, they wouldn’t have won (well, this is debatable since really this is what the decision was all about, but for argument’s sake…). Instead, “The Court described this attenuation argument as an unjustified attempt to examine the reasonableness of the religious belief at issue: ‘This argument dodges the question that RFRA presents…[instead] the Judicial inquiry should ask ‘whether the line drawn reflects an honest conviction.’ Because there was no dispute on the answer to that question, and the financial consequences for the claimants for violating their religious beliefs were severe, the Court had little difficulty concluding that the mandate imposed a ‘substantial burden’ within the meaning of RFRA” (source). To boil it down to bare bones, this on a very basic level means that Hobby Lobby won because birth control imposed a substantial and apparently untenable financial burden on the company. Don’t get me started on the fact that viagra can cost $123.99 for five 50mg tablets at CVS, while the generic equivalents of Ortho Tri-Cyclen — one of the most expensive versions of the pill on the market — TriNessa and Sprintec, cost only $27.99 per month (source). I know I was getting my generic brand for free (covered by my insurance, of course).
That’s all. I just really want to shed light on the common misperceptions surrounding Plan B, Ella, and the word “abortifacient,” which has been thrown around on Facebook (to my horror) and in the media by people largely uninformed about its true definition, its relation to these pills, and its relevance in the Hobby Lobby case. Even a conservative pro-life author I read while researching this post expresses the wish that we could generate better awareness about the uses of all forms of contraception, so that women could make more informed decisions about their bodies and their pregnancies.
So, don’t be a monkey (a friend sent this to me after my status on Facebook concerning the Hobby Lobby decision). Do your homework. Make informed decisions. And, for the love of women, please do not indict one another, because you have absolutely no idea what each individual person is going through.
Thanks, all.
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*I think this article is helpful, but I do not love how the scientist talks about the infertile woman’s eggs. I think it could be said, or translated via the author, to the audience with a little more sensitivity. Just a brief footnote.
**The fourth type of contraception that was disputed was the IUD.
Often a Woman 