Letters to the Editor

Morning after pill proves to be dangerous

To the Editors:

I’m writing in response to last week’s article, “Morning after pill should maintain prescription status.” It stated that this pill should retain its prescription status essentially to educate students about sexual activity. I would like to supplement this argument.

My first point is a challenge to the claim that there are 6.3 million unwanted pregnancies a year in this country. According to the National Center for Health Statistics there were 4,058,814 births in the year 2000, and the most recent data from the Alan Guttmacher Institute report 1.33 million abortions per year, giving us 5.39 million pregnancies total. If these were all unwanted, we would still be nearly 1 million short of the 6.3 million bemoaned in the article. Additionally, the article barely mentions the fact that this pill very often kills a young pre-born child. It also neglects the numerous side effects of this this poison, including nausea, vomiting, breast tenderness, blood clots and tubal pregnancy. Many of these pills also contain estrogen which is a carcinogen in some studies. These factors clearly indicate that the pills should retain prescription status if they are not banned completely.

Michael SeibertClass of 2005