World’s top authority on morning-after pill says women must be told it may cause abortions
- Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:46 EST
PRINCETON, New Jersey, Feb. 22, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The same month that Germany’s bishops have backed the use of the morning-after pill for rape victims, one of the world’s leading authorities on the drug has said doctors have a duty to inform women that it could prevent a newly-conceived embryo from implanting in the womb, causing an abortion.
Dr. James Trussell, Director of Princeton’s Office of Population Research, makes the statement in an academic review on the drug dated February 2013 and co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth G. Raymond.
“To make an informed choice, women must know that [emergency contraceptive pills] … prevent pregnancy primarily by delaying or inhibiting ovulation and inhibiting fertilization, but may at times inhibit implantation of a fertilized egg in the endometrium,” they write.
A senior fellow at the Guttmacher Institute, a member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s national medical committee, and a board member of the NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, Trussell has published over 50 academic articles on the morning-after pill and runs a popular website and hotline to promote its use.
For many years, pro-life activists have opposed the morning-after pill, even in cases of rape, because of studies showing the drug acts in some cases as an abortifacient by altering the woman’s endometrium to prevent the embryo from implanting.
But in recent years some studies have suggested there is no such “post-fertilization” effect and that the drug acts only by preventing conception, either by suppressing ovulation or impeding the sperm.
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