Extract Anti-abortion groups should welcome proposed new regulation allowing patients to access emergency contraception without a prescription, says the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. . . . Emergency contraception, or the “morning after pill,” is sold in Canada as levonorgestrel (Plan B). If taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, it can prevent ovulation, or interfere with fertilization, or implantation. . .The Catholic Organization for Life and Family and other anti-abortion groups believe pregnancy begins with conception, not implantation. In a letter to Health Canada, the organization called levonorgestrel an “abortifacient.”.
Abstract It is likely that mifepristone or levonorgestrel in the future will find extended use for contraceptive purposes. It is therefore essential to characterize the modes of action of these compounds. To assess the effect on the human Fallopian tube, 24 women with regular menstrual cycles and proven fertility, admitted to the hospital for voluntary sterilization by laparoscopic technique, were randomly allocated to a control or one of two treatment groups. Treatments were given with either a single dose of 200 mg mifepristone or 0.75 mg levonorgestrel in two doses 12 h apart, on day LH2. Surgery was performed on day LH4 to LH6. Steroid receptor expression was analysed by immunohistochemistry, Western blot and RT-PCR. In the controls, there was a higher concentration of progesterone receptors in the stromal cells in the isthmic region than in those in the ampullar region. Treatment with mifepristone increased the progesterone receptor concentration in epithelial and stromal cells and increased the estrogen receptor concentration in epithelial cells. No effect on steroid receptor concentration was found following levonorgestrel. The contraceptive effect of post-ovulatory mifepristone has previously been considered to be dependent on an effect on the endometrium. However an effect on the Fallopian tube could contribute to alter the peri-implantation milieu influencing fertilization and embryo development.
Extract Support for a move to make emergency postcoital contraception available without a prescription appears to be mushrooming in Canada. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) and 23 other medical and pharmaceutical organizations have joined the groundswell of support since the SOGC launched a campaign to increase awareness and availability of the “morning-after pill” in November 1998. . . some CPhA members feel emergency contraception “may interfere with implantation of the fertilized egg and they consider that more [like] abortion,” said Cooper. Pharmacists for Life, a Canadian group with about 10 members, has already opposed the move, even though the World Health Organization (WHO) says taking the drug is not equivalent to performing an abortion because the woman is not pregnant.
