‘Morning-after’ Plan B drugs aren’t abortion drugs : NPR

WASHINGTON — The Meals and Drug Administration introduced Friday that it’ll overhaul packaging labels for the emergency contraceptive capsule, Plan B, that girls can take after having intercourse to forestall a being pregnant.

The federal company stated it’s going to take away references on the contraception’s packaging that declare, with out scientific proof, that the capsule prevents a fertilized egg from implanting within the womb.

The brand new labels are meant to additional distinguish the emergency contraception — often known as the morning after capsule — from abortion drugs, which finish a being pregnant after a fertilized egg has implanted within the lining of a lady’s uterus.

In a memo launched Friday, the FDA clarified that taking Plan B drugs is just not the identical as an abortion, a indisputable fact that has lengthy been understood within the medical group.

“Proof doesn’t help that the drug impacts implantation or upkeep of a being pregnant after implantation, subsequently it doesn’t terminate a being pregnant,” the FDA stated in its assertion.

The company added that the emergency contraception works equally to contraception in stopping being pregnant, however accommodates a better dose of levonorgestrel. The capsule prevents ovulation.

A few quarter of girls say they’ve used emergency contraception drugs in some unspecified time in the future, in accordance with a survey by the Facilities for Illness Management launched final yr.

Nonetheless, concern has swirled that entry to emergency contraception similar to Plan B could be restricted in some states, after the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned the constitutional proper to an abortion this summer time. Nevada’s Republican governor-elect stated he’d take into account banning the capsule throughout a debate this yr. College clinics in Idaho additionally prohibited the drugs beneath a regulation banning public funding for “abortion associated providers” final yr.

The Meals and Drug Administration has permitted Plan B to be used as much as 72 hours, or three days, after unprotected intercourse. Girls are in a position to get the emergency contraception over-the-counter.