»» Columnists

Dear Media: There’s No Such Thing As A ‘Morning-After Abortion Pill’

video

by Tommy Christopher | 2:20 pm, January 3rd, 2012

» 26 comments

As I was (briefly) watching Fox and Friends this morning, I heard Republican presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) reference the “morning-after abortion pill,” the second time I’ve heard a GOP candidate mention the mythical drug in the past week. Host Steve Doocy failed to correct Bachmann, and although this bit of misinformation hasn’t spread much yet, I’d like to dispel it before it attaches itself to the media’s uterine wall. Any interviewer who hears this phrase has a duty to correct it.

From a propaganda standpoint, I understand the activist urge to cast Plan B, the “morning after pill,” in as sinister a light as possible. Hell, even President Obama succumbed to the urge to demonize the drug to a lesser degree, explaining the decision to make the drug prescription-only to those 16 years old and under by raising the scary-sounding, false prospect that it would be sold “alongside bubble gum or batteries.”

But the fact is, Plan B is not an “abortion pill,” it is an emergency contraceptive. In fact, as the drug label clearly states, it won’t work if you’re pregnant:

When is it not appropriate to use Plan B One-Step®?

Plan B One-Step® should not be used:

If you’re already pregnant, because it won’t work

If you’re allergic to levonorgestrel or any of the ingredients in Plan B One-Step®

In place of regular birth control. Plan B One-Step® should not be used as routine birth control, as it’s not as effective.

Plan B One-Step® won’t protect you from HIV infection (the virus that causes AIDS) or any other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)

Furthermore, a “morning-after abortion pill” is a scientific impossibility, since you can’t become pregnant the “morning after” unprotected sex. Not only isn’t Plan B a ”morning-after abortion pill,” there will never be anything called a ”morning-after abortion pill.”

As Dr. Susan Wood pointed out during her appearance on Up With Chris Hayes, the drug is effective, carries negligible side-effects, and has far fewer safety warnings than over-the-counter children’s pain relievers. If there is common ground in the abortion debate, it’s that fewer unintended pregnancies are a good thing, and Plan B is a safe, effective way to prevent abortions. As such, calling it an “abortion pill” is not just ignorant, it’s dangerous. It implies a much more traumatic, scary biological event that could dissuade someone who otherwise might have used Plan B, with possibly devastating consequences.

Calling Plan B an “abortion pill” is more than just propagandistic exaggeration, because there actually is something called an “abortion pill,” and confusing the two is dangerous. RU-486 is a drug that causes nonsurgical termination of pregnancy, but it’s not as simple as a trip to the pharmacy and a glass of water. It requires at least three visits to a doctor, and can take weeks to complete. Just as conflating RU-486 with Plan B can give women a false sense of danger about Plan B, it can also lead to a false sense of ease with RU-486, which carries significant risks that Plan B doesn’t.

The first time I heard the phrase ”morning-after abortion pill” was in an oppo memo from supposed conservative “intellectual” Newt Gingrich. In normal times, it would have merited more than a passing mention, but in today’s GOP, scientific ignorance is a feature, not a bug. When I heard Bachmann mention it on national television (not her first brush with dangerous medical misinformation) , though, I decided to see if the phrase had taken root elsewhere in the news media. A three-month search through the TV Eyes transcripts database turned up multiple mentions of the ”morning-after abortion pill” by Michele Bachmann, in speeches and remarks in Congress, but only one other instance. Anchor Rachel Platt of Kentucky ABC affiliate WHAS teased a Dec. 7 segment on the FDA’s Plan B ruling. That’s a good thing, but this is how these things get started.

So, to Steve Doocy, and anyone else who interviews Michele Bachmann or Newt Gingrich (or anyone else who uses this phrase), please don’t let it slide. All political lies are not created equal, and this one is dangerous.

Here’s the clip of Rachel Platt’s Plan B tease, followed by Rep. Bachmann’s Fox and Friends appearance, via WHAS and Fox News, respectively:

Fox and Friends, Michele Bachmann, Morning After Pill, newt gingrich, Plan B, Rachel Platt, RU-486, Steve Doocy, Susan Wood, Up with Chris Hayes

Henry Wood

Tommy Christopher is knee-deep in the blood of innocent zygotes.
Anonymous

“Any interviewer who hears this phrase has a duty to correct it.” I never thought I would get a chance to write this, every. THANK YOU MEDIAITE for standing up for INTELLIGENCE and printing something that offers some light into the propaganda (your usage of the word was NICE to see) used by politicians. NOW for those of us who dont “get it”… the word “abortion” is dropped into any discussion of this medication because MOST Americans have the brain of a 11 year old. Young and dumb regardless of actual time on the planet. SO, most Americans hear “abortion pill” and immediately grab their “well I’m not for killing any one, especially babies” (only adults who are convicted of crimes, even if wrongfully convicted, or, only people in other countries who are brown) pillow and start declaring things before they even know the truth. This wont stop people like Bachman from preying on idiots in this country, but at LEAST you’ve tried.
12voltman1

When will Bachmann become irrelevant? She is as painful to listen to.Why does anyone do it?
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=10208317 Jenny Uebbing

Except that if a fertilized ovum (read: nascent human being) does attempt to implant after conception on the uterine wall, the morning after pill ensures that the uterine lining will be insufficient to sustain implantation and continued pregnancy. That is explicitly part of the way it is engineered to function. It’s a secondary ‘failsafe’ to prevent implantation if conception does occur, despite its best efforts to prevent it. Perhaps you’d like to get your scientific facts straight before you add to the embarrassing confusion over the issue?
Anonymous

When will Oblamer become irrelevant? He is as painful to listen to.Why does anyone do it?

there..fixed it for ya!!
Henry Wood

Thank you! Tommy Christopher is knee-deep in the blood of fertilized ovums.

What I don’t understand is why we let billions of women and even girls get away with aborting their unfertilized ovums every month. I mean gee wiz, each one of them is a nascent human being!

Criminalize menstruation now!
Anonymous

What’s wrong with adoption? Hasn’t everyone heard about the worldwide orphan shortage?
Anonymous

Ignorance is bliss.
http://twitter.com/Breakingkilla99 Jason Smith

And what about the ectopic pregnancies that occur? Who’s fault is that, God’s? Is it wrong that someone’s body couldn’t properly implant and start the embryological process. Nothing happens until implantation. It is just another line to be hypothetically drawn when determining when life begins. And anyone who wants to draw that line probably believes in invisible friends blindly as well.
Anonymous

Yet you have no problem lying about Tebow…
http://twitter.com/amaditalks Amadi

This is not accurate. Biopsies on people who have used Plan B show very little change to the structure of endometrial tissue in a fashion that would prevent implantation. I’m not just saying so, a Dominican (Roman Catholic) Priest who has a PhD in, and is a professor of biology breaks down the science on the website of the Dominican Providence of St. Joseph order. If anyone is invested in highlighting evidence of Plan B being remotely abortifacient, it would be a Roman Catholic priest (who writes for Catholic Bioethics) and yet…
Anonymous

I know it must be hard to stick up for Bachmann and so you have to change the subject.
ScarredReality

It’s you who cannot get your facts straight, and if you are a woman, as I am, I beg you please educate yourself instead of trying to destroy rights women have fought for. In your ridiculous statement, birth control should be outlawed, as well as regular menstruation and miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. You are the embarrassment.
ScarredReality

Perhaps when he is no longer President, 4 or so years from now. Actually, his speeches are what many like about him. They find them relatable.
Pablo

Some lies are totally true! And if they’re not, they might as well be!

http://tinyurl.com/7xbteqy
Anonymous

Excellent Tommy. They do that to demagogue.
Anonymous

That was meant to be facetious I hope. It’s hard to tell on this site.
Anonymous

But you didn’t answer the question. I’m not fan of Obama’s but Bachmann is a absolutely ridiculous. She’s a know-nothing gaffe machine. If she was the only one running she couldn’t win.
Anonymous

Just not The Gays. Don’t let The Gays adopt. Or marry (partners of the same sex). Or have the same rights that the rest of Americans take for granted. We wouldn’t want that.
Hout Bosques

“When will Bachmann become irrelevant?”
It already happened, but the MSM didn’t notice. She’s going to get hammered tonight in Iowa (and not by Marcus), then she’s going to South Carolina to bury her campaign, & then the people of her re-districted 6 are going to dump her. Even Fuppet News isn’t going to take her; best she can look forward to is hawking Tax Xpert Noosletters on the HSN.
Hout Bosques

This is all so easily fixed: every little girl that gets born immediately gets registered in a National Egg Saver Truthiness data base, then at the first suspected sign of impending ovulation, has to report to a local NEST office, and thereafter has her eggs either certified for fertilization or harvested for third party adoption. Since human females produce between 1 and 2 million eggs during the fertile part of their lives, averaging that out to 1.5 million eggs per each of the approximately 70 million currently fertile American human females, that would mean 105 trillion children produced in this country in just one generation.

How happy!
Hout Bosques

We’re going to need those 210 trillion married gays to take care of those 105 trillion little babies.
http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

Tommy, “Dear Media” or “Dear Fox News”??
Anonymous

Steve Doocy is not a journalist; he’s a paid shill for the baggers.
Anonymous

Lol. Every month I have a quiet service in the bathroom, with a few friends, to pay respects to my unfertilized ovum.
Francisco Wilson

It’s you who cannot get your facts straight, and if you are a woman, as I am, I beg you please educate yourself instead of trying to destroy rights women have fought for. In your ridiculous statement, birth control should be outlawed, as well as regular menstruation and miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. Abortion Pill