by Emme Setter

Created on: March 09, 2009   Last Updated: March 17, 2009

Maybe you're just paranoid or perhaps you really do have a reason to be nervous- but you don't want to wait 4 weeks to find out. You live in a modern society and you know sex happens- and with it, mistakes but you aren't ready for a baby and you don't want to abort... whats your best option?

Plan B- regardless of your birth control method, mistakes happen and todays culture makes us very aware of the consequences. The anti abortion movement in strong, but Plan B is not abortion, Plan B is a preventative, stopping implantation before the blessed event, stopping life that might later be destroyed in an expensive and painful abortion. Abortion causes pain to both mother and, arguably, the child. The long term effects of both chemical and surgical abortions is massive psychologically and can cause infertility later in life. Abortion with out a doubt ends the progress of a life and has widespread religious implications. Plan B provides a safe alternative to abortion, and it encourages woman to be more aware of their sexual activity knowing they only have 72 hours to take the first pill.

The extreme right and the Christian fundamentalists wants you to believe that Plan B and the Abortion Pill (or, Chemical Abortion) are the same thing. Though the concepts both include oral medication, that is where the similarities end. Plan B, or Emergency Contraception uses progesterone to prevent pregnancy within 72 hours of intercourse and is not 100% effective. Essentially, it is the same as taking a large dose of your typical birth control. The abortion pill poisons the environment of an already implanted and developing embryo to the point of miscarriage. Admittedly neither abortion or Plan B are the ideal solution, but the problem isn't going any where soon- Plan B could help decrease the number of abortions by preventing the number of unplanned pregnancy's.

The Morning After Pill should be available of the counter to any woman who requests is at any public pharmacy. Until 2006 Wal-mart refused to supply Plan B, and individual pharmacists have the right to refuse access based on their own personal religious beliefs. This seems hypocritical, to not only deny the right to adequate birth control but to harass the woman seeking an abortion- or shun the single woman who decides to raise the baby. The easy answer is abstinence, but in America today- is that really a widespread possibility?

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