Mexico City, Mexico, Oct 13, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Director of the Bioethics Group at the Pan American University of Mexico, Rodrigo Guerra, warned this week that in places where the legalization of the morning after pill is being debated, many people are not aware of their own country’s legal statutes regarding the unborn and are told that human life does not begin at the moment of fertilization.
Guerra, who is also coordinator of the Social Observatory of the Latin American Bishops’ Council (CELAM) said that in order to deny the possible anti-implantation effects of the drug, health officials in different countries where abortion is illegal hide certain technical aspects which are unknown to the average citizen and which demonstrate that the empirical data is still insufficient in determining whether the pill is just another contraceptive.
On the other hand, Guerra stated that in countries where abortion is allowed, the very laboratories that promote the so-called Emergency Oral Contraceptive recognize that the main ingredient, Levonorgestrel, can prevent the maturation of the uterus lining and thus preclude the minimum conditions necessary for the zygote to become implanted and develop. "In both situations an ideological component exists that is thrown into the mix with the scientific debate and that distorts the sense of justice that should be present in all pubic policy," Guerra said.