Excellent rant! I do want to clarify that most forms of birth control, including Plan B, DON'T actually act by making the uterine wall inhospitable to fertilized eggs, at least in the vast majority of cases.
A good, detailed explanation of how Plan B works and doesn't work is here: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/04/why_the_wingnuts_hate_plan_b.php Basically, it's a big dose of progesterone, which actually is what's released by the body to make the uterine lining MORE hospitable. The primary action of Plan B is to prevent ovulation, which is why its effectiveness rapidly decreases the longer after unprotected sex to take it.
Copper IUDs have a spermicidal effect rather than impeding fertilized eggs-the latter effect is theoretically possible but apparently very rare in real life. There was a study, which I can't track down right now, that showed that women having unprotected sex shed WAY more fertilized eggs out of their bodies than women with IUDs did.
Hormonal IUDs work the same way, and also prevent ovulation.
Planned Parenthood tells me that there's no actual evidence that birth control pills work by making the uterine wall inhospitable. Their primary modes of action are preventing ovulation, and thickening cervical mucous to keep the sperm out.
Contraceptive foams are straight spermicides-no effect on the uterine lining.
Most of these methods have several theoretically possible modes of action. Science is honest (unlike "pro-lifers") when it doesn't know things for sure, so they list all the possible modes. While it is POSSIBLE that any of these methods (except contraceptive foams) could work the way the "pro-lifers" say, it's unlikely, and IMO, in the case of Plan B, almost biologically impossible. But of course the people who want to control women and sex latched on to the POSSIBILITY of poor homeless fertilized eggs, and thus we have this idiotic and dangerous rule.
As I have been known to say before, "pro-life," my fat ass. If they really wanted to prevent abortion, they'd be handing out IUDs on street corners, and Plan B and birth control pills in the school nurses lounge. And if they really cared about kids, they'd fund SCHIP and Head Start like crazy. And and and-the list of things that honestly pro-life people would work on instead of birth control and abortion is damn near endless, and this is your LiveJournal, not mine:)
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Date: 2008-07-17 05:58 pm (UTC)A good, detailed explanation of how Plan B works and doesn't work is here: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/04/why_the_wingnuts_hate_plan_b.php
Basically, it's a big dose of progesterone, which actually is what's released by the body to make the uterine lining MORE hospitable. The primary action of Plan B is to prevent ovulation, which is why its effectiveness rapidly decreases the longer after unprotected sex to take it.
Copper IUDs have a spermicidal effect rather than impeding fertilized eggs-the latter effect is theoretically possible but apparently very rare in real life. There was a study, which I can't track down right now, that showed that women having unprotected sex shed WAY more fertilized eggs out of their bodies than women with IUDs did.
Hormonal IUDs work the same way, and also prevent ovulation.
Planned Parenthood tells me that there's no actual evidence that birth control pills work by making the uterine wall inhospitable. Their primary modes of action are preventing ovulation, and thickening cervical mucous to keep the sperm out.
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control-4211.htm
Contraceptive foams are straight spermicides-no effect on the uterine lining.
Most of these methods have several theoretically possible modes of action. Science is honest (unlike "pro-lifers") when it doesn't know things for sure, so they list all the possible modes. While it is POSSIBLE that any of these methods (except contraceptive foams) could work the way the "pro-lifers" say, it's unlikely, and IMO, in the case of Plan B, almost biologically impossible. But of course the people who want to control women and sex latched on to the POSSIBILITY of poor homeless fertilized eggs, and thus we have this idiotic and dangerous rule.
As I have been known to say before, "pro-life," my fat ass. If they really wanted to prevent abortion, they'd be handing out IUDs on street corners, and Plan B and birth control pills in the school nurses lounge. And if they really cared about kids, they'd fund SCHIP and Head Start like crazy. And and and-the list of things that honestly pro-life people would work on instead of birth control and abortion is damn near endless, and this is your LiveJournal, not mine:)