Zatera Ul

You can tell the real hard-core feminists by their candy dishes full of emergency contraception pills. And how they keep repeating the line, “Pregnancy begins with implantation, not with conception.” Technically that’s true, but that new little life in there, the one they don’t want to think about, started at conception.

This post comments on a recent Townhall column by Nathan Tabor, about how ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) is now recommending that gynecologists give every woman a prescription for emergency contraception. The column has plenty of weak points, but I agree that doctors shouldn’t be trying to force these prescriptions on women, particularly on pro-life women like me. Any doctor that thinks I would take emergency contraception doesn’t know me very well at all, and may be surprised when I rip up the prescription and throw it back. I’m not taking anything that could mess up the implantation or life of an existing embryo.

I realize that EC mostly works by suppressing ovulation, and by thickening cervical mucus to prevent fertilization if ovulation has already occurred. Not so good at “preventing” pregnancy when fertilization has already occurred. But I’m not convinced that taking a big shot of reproductive hormones at the wrong time can’t interfere with implantation, or the post-implantation embryo.

I’m also not comfortable with doctors handing these prescriptions out like candy. One reason is that EC’s effectiveness is so timing-dependent; if ovulation has already happened, it probably won’t help to prevent fertilization, not much more than just trusting to chance. Why mess with your hormones if it won’t do any good? Another is that I don’t think it’s really feminist to promote the don’t-bother-your-little-head-with-how-your-reproductive-system-really-works-just-chuck-these-pills-in-it-and-everything-will-be-fine idea. A lot of my self-acceptance as a woman didn’t come until after I learned about NFP/fertility awareness, and I was quite angry that I didn’t learn about it until I was 24–it was so simple, and elegant in the way that some mathematical equations are elegant. I certainly didn’t learn about it from feminists. Anyway, how many women taking EC will have the least idea about when they ovulate, do you think?

Actually, feminists should really think twice about their enthusiastic support for EC. Why? Because it will lead to a somewhat higher proportion of boy babies! How? By preventing the conception of girls more that that of boys. Y sperm swim faster, and have the advantage when the egg is ready, but X sperm live longer, and can wait longer for the egg to show up. EC primarily prevents pregnancies from pre-ovulation sex–pregnancies that would have more often resulted in girl babies. Also, not all EC “failures” are aborted. Therefore, there will be more boys, most of whom will grow up into card-carrying members of the Patriarchy.