14-year-old rape victim not offered EC

Shark-Fu writes about her 14-year-old friend who had the self-possession to take herself to the ER after being raped, but who didn't get the option of emergency contraception. When Shark-Fu realized the lapse, she took the young woman to a clinic, but it was too late:

When we arrived at Planned Parenthood we got another dose of reality. It was too late for emergency contraception but too early to find out if the monster who raped her had also gotten her pregnant.

With an appointment having been set we left…walked out and got into my car…drove past the crowd of anti-choice protesters who chose that moment to thrust dead baby pictures at my window…and out onto the road.

I drove…and then I pulled over, turned and folded her into my arms.

We wept…rocking back and forth on the side of the road...and I have no idea who was comforting whom.

The thing is...this young woman is strength.

That 14 year old is the very definition of what strength is.

But I am struggling to turn rage back into usable energy…frustration into action.

Read the whole thing. Then, read the Planned Parenthood fact sheet on emergency contraception. Then, find out what you can do to get EC to women who need it.

Remember, the number one fact about EC that everyone needs to know is that that EC is just high-dose birth control pills. Don't listen to propagandists who say that EC is a form of medical abortion. The mechanism is the same as the pill. If you think that a 14-year-old deserves to know about the pill, she deserves the option of OCP, whether or not she's been raped. The same goes for every woman.

Comments

[cfrost]

Don't listen to propagandists who say that EC is a form of medical abortion.

Like I care what they say? Abortion, contraception - emergency or not; whatever, a woman's -or girl's- uterus is her property, and hers alone, no compromise, no exceptions, no apologies, period.

[steve duncan]

One day women will come to realize a bunch of old white guys control their lives and bodies. Fighting it just causes you all loads of angst.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Cfrost, I agree completely. Who cares if the ovum implants or not, or whether fertilization happens?

However, I think it's important to dispel the abortifacient myth because in debunking the canard we shed light real agenda of the anti-Plan B crowd: They don't care at all about fetal life, they just want to punish women for having sex.

Also, women need accurate information in order to exercise their right to choose. Some people are morally against abortion and comfortable with OCP. By lying about which is which, the American Taliban is foreclosing on the options of those women because they won't take Plan B out of misguided principle.

[Cass]

Well said, Lindsay. I only hope this little girl doesn't become pregnant, and that she gets all the help and support she needs.

[MJohnson]

I am a PRO-CHOICE male who does believe that EC pills should be in every woman's medicine cabinet, but it is my understanding that Emergency Contraception IS an abortifacient. That it WILL cause an implanted, newly fertilized ovum to be expelled [an ovum that would otherwise develop into a viable fetus.]

It is true that the anti-choice crowd cares far more about dictating all aspects of women's sexual lives than they care about LIFE (even if most of them aren't aware of it,) so why debate with them about conception? Why try to mollify our opposition by saying "but EC isn't a medical abortion?"

What if it was? Should it be used less often then?

Of course not.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Morally, you're absolutely right MJohnson. It doesn't make a whit of difference what happens at the cellular level.

The medical criterion for pregnancy is implantation, not fertilization. Again, morally, who cares. However the standard medical terminology is clear and the anti-contraception zealots are engaging in deliberate deception when they use the term "abortifacient" to describe emergency contraception.

Scientists think that EC prevents pregnancy in a variety of ways: It can suppress ovulation, prevent fertilization, or prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum. The most frequent mechanism of action is probably the suppression of ovulation.

IUDs are a familiar example of a contraceptive that works at the level of implantation.

[5ive]

The morula (newly fertilized folicle) is NOT an implanted ovum detined to become a fetus. Not only does it take about 5 hours for the little sperm to even get to the follicule int he ovarian tube, but it takes roughly 2 weeks for the morula to become a blastocyst thru mitotic division and tavel thru the ovain tubes to actually reach the uterus and then to implant in the endometirum. A lot can and does go wrong naturally in these stages. S to say that using EC is an "abortifacient" is plain false.

[LongHairedWeirdo]

MJohnson:
I am a PRO-CHOICE male who does believe that EC pills should be in every woman's medicine cabinet, but it is my understanding that Emergency Contraception IS an abortifacient. That it WILL cause an implanted, newly fertilized ovum to be expelled [an ovum that would otherwise develop into a viable fetus.]

No. If implantation has occurred, it's too late.

However, if fertilization has occurred, it will prevent implantation.

Thus, if you believe "personhood" (not "life" - we kill plants and animals for food, and they have "life") begins at conception, and that the person has a right to take up residence in a woman's uterus, even though she specifically does not wish to allow this to happen, then, morally, you might have a problem with EC.

Note that, if it prevents a fetus from implanting, we're in an interesting situation, philosophically speaking. Because a woman has had sex, the anti-choice argument goes, *she has no right to prevent it from implanting*; because she has had sex, another "person" is entitled to take up residence in her, even against her clearly expressed consent.

A small clump of cells - and that is *all* it is when it implants - is being given more rights to invade a woman's body than she has rights to prevent it from happening.

"Pro-life" or anti-sex? It seems pretty obvious to me at that point.

[Nina]

Less contraception for religious zealots = more religious zealots. It is all about sex, a 5ive said. Punishment of female sexuality.

[Nina]

Less contraception for religious zealots = more religious zealots. It is all about sex, a 5ive said. Punishment of female sexuality.