Plan B is not an abortion pill, changes in packaging to clarify the same: US FDA

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has decided to change the packaging labels for the Plan B Morning-After pill to specify that it is not an abortion pill. The administration said that it would remove all pictures or claims that refer that the pill might prevent a fertilised egg in the womb.

Plan B is an over-the-counter (OTC) medicine, that is it can be bought without a prescription in case of unprotected sex. It can be taken as a backup method of medical birth control to reduce the chance of pregnancy, only if taken within 72 hours after contraceptive failures or unprotected sex. FDA clarifies that the Plan B pill works by stopping or delaying the release of an egg from the ovary and not by causing an abortion.

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What do the packaging labels of the Plan B pill say?

Packaging labels of Plan B and its generic versions have been wrongly claiming that taking the pill might be able to prevent a fertilised egg from implanting. Medical professionals say this claim is not backed by any scientific evidence but was shown on the label only to get Plan B's OTC status approved.

How do Plan B pills work?

The Plan B pill comes in the form of one tablet that contains a much higher dose of the synthetic hormone levonorgestrel than the birth control pills and works in a similar way by stopping or delaying the release of an egg from the ovary.

Why FDA decided on changing the labels of Plan B pills?

According to an FDA update on Friday, the agency is making label changes at the request of the manufacturer of Plan B and after considering the additional scientific evidence carefully.

"FDA determined the current science supports a conclusion that Plan B One-Step works by inhibiting or delaying ovulation and the mid-cycle hormonal changes", the agency said. "The evidence also supports the conclusion that there is no direct effect on fertilization or implantation".

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In a survey conducted in 2021 by the Centers for Disease Control, at least 24.3 per cent of women aged between 22 to 49 reported that they had used emergency contraception pills.

And after the US supreme court's decision earlier this year to overturn the constitutional right to abortion,pharmacies reportedly started setting limits on the number of emergency contraception pills consumers could buy. In several conservative states, access to these emergency contraceptive pills remains severely limited.

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