Ladies find emergency contraceptive pill to be a great relief when the contraception methods go wrong. But these pills have been surrounded by controversies due to religious beliefs. Several religions are against such killing of the fetus. But medically speaking, the emergency contraceptive pill in fact does not cause abortion! This sounds weird, as the very purpose of making the pill was to save the pregnant woman from the painful experience of abortion.
Moreover, several people hold the belief that the morning after pill is same thing as abortion pill, which is not true. The morning after pill aka emergency contraceptive pill is advised to be taken within 24-72 hours after the contraception method fails or unprotected sex has been had. Even if the sperm has fertilized the egg within this period, then this fertilized egg is just a small cluster of cells or one cell – too small to be even detected. The pill is like a hormone which dissolves this cluster or that single cell and does not cause any bleeding or pain.
Now coming to the functioning of abortion pills, this kind of pill is taken after the woman misses her period and the pregnancy test comes out to be positive. The pill has oxytocin which causes the uterus to cramp. It detaches the fetus from the walls of the womb, after which it dissolves the fetus. At this stage, the fetus might be having a heartbeat, meaning that it has a life.
Then the question arises – why is emergency contraception not the same as abortion? The pregnancy medically starts after the fetus gets attached to the uterine walls and the implantation takes place. So the emergency contraceptive pill does not bring about abortion because it acts before the fetus can implant itself. What the womb has 72 hours post contraception is not fetus- it is a lifeless cluster of cells.
