FDA to change Plan B packaging label to clarify it doesn’t cause abortion

The Food and Drug Administration introduced Friday that it’s going to 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 is 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 new labels are meant to additional distinguish the emergency contraception – often known as the morning after capsule – from abortion capsules, 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 capsules just isn’t the identical as an abortion, a undeniable fact that has lengthy been understood within the medical neighborhood.

“Evidence does not support that the drug affects implantation or maintenance of a pregnancy after implantation, therefore it does not terminate a pregnancy,” the FDA stated in its assertion.

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

About 1 / 4 of girls say they’ve used emergency contraception capsules sooner or later, in response to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control launched final 12 months.

Still, concern has swirled that entry to emergency contraception akin to Plan B is likely to be restricted in some states, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional proper to an abortion this summer season. Nevada’s Republican governor-elect stated he’d take into account banning the capsule throughout a debate this 12 months. School clinics in Idaho additionally prohibited the capsules underneath a regulation banning public funding for “abortion related services” final 12 months.

The Food and Drug Administration has accepted Plan B to be used as much as 72 hours, or three days, after unprotected intercourse. Women are capable of get the emergency contraception over-the-counter.