LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The study found that while more women in the U.S. are using the so called morning after pill, it's generally only once. According to a government report about 11 percent of sexually active women, or 5.8 million, used the pill between 2006 and 2010. This is a substantial increase from about four percent in 2002.

It was the first such report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since regulators eased access to the drug in 2006.

Of those surveyed, 59 percent said they took it just once, while 24 percent said they used it twice. Seventeen percent said they used it three times or more.

Many people, including conservative and Christian groups, including Catholic institutions, oppose the use of artificial birth control, in particular morning-after pills, because of their potential to act as an abortifacient after fertilization and before implantation. They are challenging the Affordable care Act, saying that its alleged religious exemption is too narrow and compels religious institutions and people to violate their deeply held religious beliefs.

A separate report found that 99 percent of sexually active women of reproductive age have used some form of contraception, including the use of condoms and longer-term, non-pill methods.

What is now routinely called "Emergency" contraception has been available by prescription in the United States since 1999. Plan B, the most well known version, has stirred the most political and social controversy, and for good reason.

As with other birth control, Plan B purports to stop pregnancy by blocking the release of a woman's egg. However, though it may prevent fertilization - it also can act to prevent implantation in the uterus of an already fertilized egg. It must be taken within days after intercourse to work.

In other words, this so called contraceptive has the potential to act as an abortion inducing drug if conception has already occurred. It ejects the embryonic person before implantation, causing an abortion. 

After years of contentious debate, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved sales of Plan B to adult women without a prescription in 2006. It later allowed sales to 17-year-olds.

Many warned it could lead to promiscuity, especially among youth, and more sexual assaults.

Amy Allina of the National Women's Health Network said CDC's findings show morning-after pills are not replacing conventional birth control methods for most women, although "there are some for whom it's clearly not a one-time thing."

Activists for unrestricted contraception and abortion are still pressing for over-the-counter access with no age restrictions after U.S. Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in 2011 took an unprecedented step of intervening in an FDA decision and rejecting the latest petition to loosen sales.

"This data shows the importance of expanding access to emergency contraception to all women of reproductive age," Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood Federation of America says.

Of course, Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortion services in the nation, has a vested interest in the promotion of such "emergency contraceptives" and denies the fundamental human right of human persons in the womb of their mothers.

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