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Last updated: Thursday, May 24, 11:59 a.m.
Opinion

Op-Ed: Mabel Wadsworth clinic fails to provide adequate info to women

By Peter Fitzgerald
Posted on Dec. 03, 2009, at 1:42 a.m.

Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center is a pregnancy clinic that says they are trying to help women. I find this hard to believe. In their advertisement in The Maine Campus and on their Web site, mabelwadsworth.org, the clinic claims their emergency contraception (EC) pill produced by Plan B is safe and effective up to five days after intercourse. However, the Plan B Web site, planbonestep.com, says the pill is effective for only up to three days. Simply put, lying to women about a birth control’s efficacy is not how you show you care about them.

Mabel Wadsworth says emergency contraception is safe, which isn’t surprising since they’re selling it. Here is a list of side effects that could take place when using Plan B: nausea, abdominal pain, fatigue, headache, dizziness, breast tenderness, spotting, vomiting and diarrhea. If you think those symptoms sound bad, you haven’t even heard the worst of it: Plan B could cause an ectopic pregnancy.

So, what is an ectopic pregnancy, and why should I be worried? Yes, I am a guy, and it should worry me. Any problem that is going to affect my friends is something I should be concerned with. An ectopic pregnancy is when the fetus starts growing outside the uterus and plants itself there. This usually takes place in the fallopian tubes, which are in no way suited for the development of a child. As the egg grows, it can burst the tubes or organ that it is inside. This causes massive internal bleeding and can endanger the lives of both the mother and the child. That doesn’t sound “safe” to me. Mabel Wadsworth should know that withholding information that could be life-threatening is not a caring act.

According to the clinic’s Web site, the Plan B pill works by “delaying or inhibiting ovulation, inhibiting fertilization or preventing implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.” Preventing implantation of the egg in the uterus is one of the main causes of ectopic pregnancies. Mabel Wadsworth knows this. At the end of the list of possible side effects, they say you should go to the doctor immediately if you have severe stomach pain because it could be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy. They somehow fail to mention what an ectopic pregnancy is and what causes it.

“There is no scientific data to suggest that there would be an increased risk of birth defects if EC fails or if a woman who is already pregnant takes EC,” the clinic says on its Web site. While this is vaguely reassuring at first glance, vague is all it is. It doesn’t say they have any data at all. Have they done any conclusive testing? I really don’t know, and if I were you, I wouldn’t jump up and use something that may or may not be safe in this scenario — especially since it isn’t safe in any other scenario.

Peter Fitzgerald is a junior electrical engineering student.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009, 1:42 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.

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  • Dio Genes

    Oh please! Here’s the list of side effects for Ibuprofen, a.k.a. Advil, Motrin. How have any of us survived the rememdy for a headache or sore muscles? If you want reproductive medical advice, ask someone at the Wadsworth Center, not an alarmist EE junior.

    “rash, ringing in the ears, headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, constipation and heartburn. NSAIDs reduce the ability of blood to clot and therefore increase bleeding after an injury. Ibuprofen may cause ulceration of the stomach or intestine, and the ulcers may bleed. Sometimes, ulceration can occur without abdominal pain, and black, tarry stools, weakness, and dizziness upon standing (orthostatic hypotension) due to bleeding may be the only signs of an ulcer. NSAIDs reduce the flow of blood to the kidneys and impair function of the kidneys. The impairment is most likely to occur in patients who already have impaired function of the kidney or congestive heart failure, and use of NSAIDs in these patients should be cautious. People who are allergic to other NSAIDs, including aspirin, should not use ibuprofen. Individuals with asthma are more likely to experience allergic reactions to ibuprofen and other NSAIDs. Fluid retention (edema), blood clots, heart attacks, hypertension and heart failure have also been associated”

  • stargazer1019

    And check your facts – Plan B does not cause an ectopic pregnancy, the site is warning you that sever cramping is not normal so to go to your doctor to make sure you do not have an ectopic pregnancy. The ectopics that occur would have occured regardless because plan B prevents pregnancy from taking in your uteris, not in your tubes. Therefore those women would have had an ectopic pregnancy regardless, but they want to make sure that women don’t think that severe cramping is because of plan B and ignore it. If you are going to go on a pointless rant, with scare tactics, at least check your facts. Or perhaps the point was not to be factual, but just scare women into staying away from doing what you probably find wrong for religious reasons.

  • http://www.pfli.org Bo Meister

    Plan B is flat out an abortifacient 75-89% according to various studies conducted by the manufacturer and the FDA. As a pharmacist with a doctorate and 31+ yrs experience, I can confidently tell you just look at the insert and it is plain as day. Plan B isn’t the French abortion pill mifepristone (erroneously called RU 486 the clinic and its fellow death mills) but it certainly has the same net effect: a dead preborn baby. Let’s not also forget the money angle: the clinic and Planned Parenthood types get these for pennies on the dollar at a “non profit” rate, something the local pharmacy cannot do due to law. So they’re inflating a very cheap drug, helping kill your baby and subjecting women to a high dose steroid, which can cause numerous side effects such as stroke, heart attack and cancer….nice!

  • Tyler

    I would challenge you (and the article author) to ask yourself whether you’ve been honest with yourself. Have you actually made a valid and honest attempt to look at this issue, or have you just decided to pick a fight because of a pre-disposed view?

    If you’ve researched how emergency contraception works, it is clearly not abortion: it doesn’t work if you’re already pregnant! No need to even get into an argument about abortion here…
    Do you really want to help women, or do you want to control what goes on in this world so that it is sterile of cultures and opinions that aren’t yours? Wanting to ensure people are safe and healthy and all that is very honorable, but is that REALLY what this is about??
    (Oh and non-profit means the clinic can’t make profit. So $$$ motivations…?)

  • Ryan Page

    No offense to the fine people that work at the paper, but nobody fact checked this?

    Printing misleading medical information is downright dangerous, and by most standards immoral.

  • Emily

    Ulcers and kidney impairment happen in people who shouldn’t take ibuprofen because of other meds and health, and in people who take it too often. The other side effects are minor compared to an ectopic pregnancy. Do you not understand what an ectopic pregnancy is? Don’t “oh please!” an ectopic pregnancy; they are a life threatening health complication. Also, why would consulting a company that sells the product in question ever be a good idea? Of course they’re going to tell you it’s OK even if it isn’t; they get your money. The main issue here is that the manufacturer of the drug states it’s safe to take before three days, while Wadsworth states it’s five days. Taking it passed the time it’s ‘safe’ to take it increases the risk of ectopic pregnancies.

  • Emily

    When you assume that a man’s concern for the health of many women is a religious reason, you risk being misinformed because you don’t check the facts. Compare the manufacturer to the Wadsworth center and look up what an ectopic pregnancy is. Maybe then you will understand.

  • Emily

    Ryan, did you fact check this before you posted your comment? Compare the manufacturer’s warnings to the Wadsworth center as the author did.

  • http://deleted Ryan Page

    Do you have any sources for your claims?

  • laura

    If you check the FDA web site then you would see that they approve plan b for up to 5 days… maybe you should read into these types of things before posting a response. And I totally agree with Ryan, it is dangerous to post misleading medical information. It comes down to one thing, its an individuals choice. You have a better risk of getting an ectopic pregnancy using some forms of birth control than you do using EC.