Dear Editor:
There are pharmacists in Hot Springs who refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception (the “morning after” pill), for “moral reasons.” These pharmacists, supposedly well trained and educated, are under the misconception that emergency contraception is an “abortion pill.”
A 2003 study (by the FDA) suggests that progestin-only ECPs (Emergency Contraception Pills) work by preventing ovulation or fertilization, and have no effect on implantation. In other words the pill does NOT abort a fertilized egg, it prevents fertilization, as does any contraception.
The immediate use of emergency contraception could prevent 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions annually, half of the total abortion rate. Some pharmacists even refuse to fill prescriptions for birth-control pills, although the Catholic prohibition of birth control is another issue entirely.
In my opinion, these pharmacists are complicit in encouraging the rate of unintended pregnancies, and consequently the disgraceful number of abortions, to say nothing of the untold numbers of unwanted children who are neglected, abused, or even murdered by their parents. Depriving women of legal contraception, especially in an emergency after unprotected sex, is their so-called “moral stand.” What kind of righteous, arrogant morality is that?
Please help educate your pharmacist that emergency contraception is not abortion and in fact, will help reduce the abortion rate dramatically. Isn’t that what we all want?
Ana Getzoff
