Morning after pill
 

My niece got drunk and had unprotected sex with a guy she met at a bar while in Europe. My brother and his wife encouraged her to take the morning after pill, which she did. She was barely 18 at the time.

I think my brother and his wife were wrong. I'm fine with birth control, but not the morning after pill. There is a difference between preventing life and ending it. The scientific niceties of what a two-day old zygote is does not concern me. I would have told my daughter that one of the consequences of her actions was the possibility that she could get pregnant. The sexual act is the means by which life is created, and if she performs that act irresponsibly, it could have life altering consequences.

Small choices can have cataclysmic consequences. Life is hard. We have to accept the consequences of our actions. Blunting them with the convenience of modern technology is moral robbery in my opinion.

And my attitude does not come from a perspective of punishment. The damage to her soul by taking the morning-after pill, and the fundamental altering of her worldview that occurred when she did so, are much worse then carrying a baby to term and then giving it up for adoption. Morning sickness, the heartache of giving the baby up, yes. But such pains do nothing to her soul. The quick fix for heedless sex, the ending of life, does much to her soul.

Isn't the morning after pill simply a super-dosage of the pill? I don't equate the MAP with abortion and find your opinion to be too tightly wound up. I agree with your relatives and not with you.

Don't make an eighteen year pay a lifetime for such a decision. When life becomes legitimate and begins is unknown to me, but it sure doesn't seem like it's immediately after conception. If it's okay to take the pill, and it is, then it's okay to take the MAP, as they are virtually one and the same.

The MAP can result in a chemical abortion, while most often it's effective before implantation. Even when it works to prevent implantation, I see a difference between the pill before and the MAP. One prevents life from starting; the other halts it after the first steps have been taken.

I'm very sympathetic to the Catholic view on birth control. That is, I understand it, and my view of the MAP comes from the same impulse that gives rise to my sympathy. It's about monkeying around with life and the means by which it comes into this world.

I have a friend who has overcome tumors, yet the doctor said the lasting effect is that said she will be able to conceive only once, and even then there will be only a 50% chance of the unborn making it all the way to a full term and live birth. (It involves other factors such as her increased risk of going into toxemia, etc.).

She is afraid to get pregnant because she has the knowledge that her body has a 50/50 chance of "killing" the baby. She doesn't want to live with the guilt. So she is afraid to give it that one try.

Different situation, but same concept.

I think your friend's concerns are misplaced. The MAP is the intentional halt of life that is forming. Your friend's only intention would be the creation and protection of life. She is not choosing what her body does once it becomes pregnant, unlike a woman who chooses to take the MAP.

what about if your daughter or wife is raped?

What about an IUD?

I respect your perspective Levin. I will just say that I believe that if you actually had an 18 year old daughter in that situation there is a very good chance you would feel very differently.

Everybody's an idealist until they have an iron in the fire.

My daughters are seventeen and almost twenty. Luckily they are not likely to be found in that situation but I know I would not encourage avoiding the MAP.

Man, I fear for when my daughters are older...

I'm with Levin. I can't imagine that I would be encouraging my daughter to take the morning after pill after consensual sex.

"You had sex. You might be pregnant. Take medication to end it."

Now, if the said she had taken it (without my suggestion), I don't know that I would be angry, she has to live with her own choices.

Rape on the other hand is a whole different ballgame.