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Does Emergency Contraceptive Pill Cause Abortion?

The emergency contraceptive pill that you can have if your contraception fails accidentally was a great invention. But for some reason, the morning after pill has always been shrouded in controversy. Initially, it was rejected as an abortion pill for religious reasons. Many religions in the world don't support abortion. However, the emergency contraceptive pill does not cause abortion in medical terms.

It is an interesting dilemma because the purpose of coming up with an emergency contraceptive was solely to avoid the need for an abortion. And yet many people believe that a morning after pill and an abortion pill are one and the same. To understand the difference between these two pills, you need to understand how each one of these pills work.

Emergency Contraceptive Pill Abortion

How Emergency Contraceptive Pill Works?
The emergency contraceptive or morning after pill should be taken within 24 to 72 hours after having unprotected sex or if your method of contraception fails. During this time, even if the egg has been fertilised by the sperm, it is one single cell or a cluster of some cells which is too small to even be detected. This pill is basically a hormone that dissolves this single or cluster of cells without causing pain or bleeding.

How Abortion Pill Works?
Abortion pills are always taken after you miss your period and you have positive pregnancy test. An abortion pill contains oxytocin that makes your uterus cramp, detaches the foetus from the uterus walls and then dissolves it. By this time, the foetus may have a heartbeat which means it is a life on its own.

Why Emergency Contraception Is Not Abortion?
Medically, a pregnancy begins only after the foetus attaches itself to the walls of the uterus and the implantation happens. However, the emergency contraceptive pill doesn't cause abortion because it works before the foetus implants itself. Moreover, within 72 hours after fertilisation what you have is not a foetus but a zygote or a cluster of cells that is not a life on its own.

Read more about: contraception pregnancy abortion