The government have announced today that the morning-after
pill will be available to women for free over the Christmas period – and I for
one believe this is a very good decision.
As I posted the other day, teenage pregnancy in the UK is very high
(see: http://opinionatedgenius.blogspot.com/2011/12/birth-control.html),
and that’s just teens. The total number of abortions carried out last year (2010)
was 189,574, so clearly the problem of unwanted pregnancies is more widespread
than just teenagers.
The anti-abortion group, Life are obviously strongly opposed
to the move, however I would have to argue that the Government can not afford
any unwanted babies at the current moment in time, and the morning-after pill
is also a much cheaper alternative to other methods of abortion that the
government provides on the NHS.
I would also argue that (although this goes further into the
ethical debate of abortion which I may come back to in the future) that
aborting an embryo with the morning-after pill is less likely to be considered
a termination of life than the aborting of a foetus which can be done legally
up until 24 weeks into the pregnancy - at which stage it would be able to
survive outside of the womb in most cases.
The morning after pill does not cause abortions. It's primary function is to prevent fertilization by preventing ovulation.
ReplyDeleteIt can be considered to cause abortions however if the timing is right... or wrong. If the egg has already been released then there is a chance that fertilisation will have occurred within the first 72 hours after intercourse and thus the alternate function, to stop the embryo implanting, would, or could, be counted as abortion.
ReplyDeleteThe morning after pill is already free. Three of my sexual partners have had them for free from Boots chemist after broken condoms, none were even UK citizens, two weren't even EU citizens. Perhaps this is only in Scotland?
ReplyDeleteAs far as I was aware, you could only get it free from a GP or family planning clinic and most pharmacies charge around £22-£26 for it.
ReplyDeleteIt was specifically Boots pharmacies who had a deal with NHS and acted like a family planing clinic in respects to the morning after pill.
ReplyDelete