Whilst perusing the internets earlier today, a friend came across a staggering statistic: one in three women in America will have an abortion at some point in their life. Another article says that if the current rates continue, 35% of women will have had an abortion by the time they reach the age of 35. Um. What?
I took a quick break from writing about shoes to looks up a few more facts just to get my bearings on the abortion front, and there's definitely some confusing information, which leads me to ask: Hey Planned Parenthood, what's the deal with the morning after pill? For full disclosure, I took it as a precaution one morning after I had fallen asleep without taking my pill, so does that mean I'm part of that statistic?
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Says Planned Parenthood: "You might have also heard that the morning-after pill causes an abortion. But that's not true. The morning-after pill is not the abortion pill. Emergency contraception is birth control, not abortion."
Just to clear things up, Plan B works by preventing a woman's ovaries from releasing eggs (and also by thinning the uterine lining), so it cannot terminate an existing pregnany. But it turns out there IS such a thing as the abortion pill. The real name is mifepristone, and it can be used up to 9 weeks after a woman becomes pregnant. It's administered in two phases: first, the mifepristone, and then a second medicine called misoprostol, taken three days later, causes the uterus to empty. This feels similar to an early miscarriage and is about 97% effective. Am I the only one that had no idea about the abortion pill? Is it scarier to think that two of my friends that had abortions had no idea it existed either?
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Initially, I was under the impression that the one in three women that had an abortion included those who took the morning after pill, but Planned Parenthood cites in-clinic abortions and the abortion pill (both are safe and effective options) as the two factors leading to a terminated pregnancy. To loop back to our original question, yes - one in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime. If you're asking yourself how that can be, take a quick scan of the room you're in (if, you know, you're not an accountant) and find out how many people know someone who has had one.
Of course, my intention is not to shame anyone who has, and I don't want to throw my avid pro-choiceness in anyone's face, but I think it's about time we gave women the options they deserve. Instead, let's try to remember that we didn't impregnate ourselves (amirite?) and it's best for women to make a well-informed decision based on their individual circumstance, especially when men can so easily take themselves out of the child rearing situation. You hear me, Republicans? VAGINA.
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