Emergency Contraceptives Lack of Availability and the Possibility of Being an Over the Counter Option for Sexually Active Women The question, "What did I do last night," has been posed by many women to themselves. Often in response to the inquiry comes details of a sexual encounter. Sometimes, an unprotected sexual encounter. Other times an encounter that was initially began with a condom that may have broke. Paranoid at the thought of pregnancy, women who have had unprotected sex can now have another option. They have the ability to obtain a prescrpition for emergency contraceptives. Emergency contraceptives, also known as the morning after pill or postcoital contraception, can be used up to seventy-two hours after intercourse (Advocates for Youth 1). The emergency contraceptive pill either delays or inhibits ovulatoin and/or alters tubal transport of sperm or ova, inhibiting fertilization; or by altering the endometrium and inhibiting implantation (Life Insight 4). "It is impossible to determine which mode of action is responsible in any given cycle for a woman's failure to conceive or maintain pregnancy after 'unprotected' intercourse" (Life Insight 4). The grace period of three days allows women the chance to obtain and fill a prescription for Preven of Plan B, two common emergency contraceptives. Controversy exists around the emergency contraceptive pills, as some have the viewpoint that it is similar to abortion, an equally controversial topic. Dr. Rob Pankratz believes that morning after pills work by 'deliberately causing the rejection of a newly concieved human being' (Physicians for Life 1). He also goes on to say that he does not prescribe morning after pills for conscience reasons, but will refer patients to doctors who do prescribe the pill as an obligation under his employment (Physicians for Life 1). Dr. Hanna Klaus of the Natural Family Planning Center believes that a woman may cease to acknowledge the fact that she m...
