Contraception Plan Angers Some

By Staff and wire reports

MISHAWAKA, Ind. – A giveaway of emergency contraception doses at 10 of Planned Parenthood’s Indiana health centers, including Evansville, has angered an anti-abortion group, whose leader calls the giveaway “irresponsible.”

Planned Parenthood announced Friday that its health centers in Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Hammond, Lafayette, Madison, Mishawaka, Muncie, Terre Haute and Valparaiso will give out emergency contraception doses between Feb. 26 and April 8.

The Evansville center’s giveaway takes place Feb. 26.

The giveaways are timed to remind young adults of the importance of responsible sexual behavior as spring break nears for many colleges and universities, said Steve Carr, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood of Indiana.

He stressed emergency contraception should not be relied on as a main source of birth control, just for emergency situations to prevent an unintended pregnancy.

Local abortion opponents said Monday they did not agree with Planned Parenthood’s emergency contraception giveaway.

Mary Ellen VanDyke, executive director of Vanderburgh County Right to Life, said her group likely will issue a news release in response to Planned Parenthood’s giveaway, but beyond that “we haven’t really formed a plan of action yet.”

Likewise, Birthright and the Evansville Christian Life Center, which operates Evansville’s two Pregnancy Resource Centers, said Monday they had no formal response planned.

Dr. Bill Blanke, an Evansville family-practice physician and an abortion opponent, said his problem with emergency contraception lies in what he calls “somewhat deceptive advertising” about how the pills work.

Emergency contraception, he said, works in one of three ways: it either prevents ovulation from occurring, thickens cervical mucus to keep an egg from being fertilized or prevents a fertilized egg from implanting into the uterine wall.

“It depends on where the woman is in her menstrual cycle as to how the pill is going to work,” Blanke said.

And once an egg has been fertilized, Blanke said, “you’re interfering after conception has already occurred… From the pro- life perspective,

that is an early abortion”

Most patients, Blanke said, are not fully informed about how emergency contraception works.

Carr said many people confuse emergency contraception with the RU486 abortion pill or mifepristone – which ends a pregnancy.

“In a nutshell, emergency contraception is just a higher dose of birth control pill,” Carr said. “It’s safe. It’s available over the counter. It’s contraception.”

In August 2006, the Food and Drug Administration approved the emergency contraceptive Plan B as an over-the-counter drug for women 18 and older.

It had previously been available only by prescription.

Indiana Right to Life executive director Mike Fichter told the South Bend Tribune on Friday that Planned Parenthood’s actions are “irresponsible.”

“They’re giving kids a false sense of security for those who are potentially going to engage in risky sexual behavior,” said Fichter.

He said emergency contraception does not prevent disease and there’s little evidence that it has any significant impact on abortion or unintended pregnancy rates.

“This is all about Planned Parenthood gaining free advertising to build its customer base among sexually active teens,” Fichter said in the statement.

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