Having survived the 45+ inches of snow in Washington, D.C. over the last few weeks, I enjoyed Melissa Bell’s recent Washington Post article on medical cabinet “must-haves” during a snow storm. However, when I reached the bottom of her list which included Neosporin, Band-aids, and aspirin, among other items for minor illnesses, I was reminded of the Sesame Street tune and game: “One of These Things is Not Like the Other.”

Bell’s last “must-have” was “Plan B,” also known as the morning-after pill. “The morning-after pill may not be a must-have for every family,” she writes, “but for women who are sexually active, even if they’re married, it probably wouldn’t hurt to have Plan B.”

What she neglects to mention is that Plan B — unlike other birth control methods — can act as an abortifacient. It begs the question: Why, on a list of “necessities,” would Bell include a drug that could potentially end a human life? By substituting Plan B for traditional contraception, the Post is feeding into the propaganda that these pills are nothing more than birth control, when in fact they can have lethal implications.

Moreover, I am compelled to ask: why is a woman’s fertility (or perhaps an unwanted pregnancy) characterized in such a way that it is included in a list of common ailments?

Family Research Council is a 501c(3) non-profit organization. If this post has been helpful to you, please consider a gift to help us continue to advance Faith, Family, and Freedom.