FDA Changes Guide to Morning-After Pill

Changes in consumer guide creates an uproar

FDA Changes Guide to Morning-After Pill and Has Not Released Official Statement

Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration quietly updated its consumer guide to the morning-after pill. By updating, we mean removing a critical statement from their consumer guide. The explanation that the morning-after pill and the copper IUD can prohibit an egg from implanting in the womb after fertilization has been removed. The FDA has yet to make an announcement regarding the changes.

The revised consumer guide has created uproar with a number of activist and religious groups. Politicians have determined any termination of a fertilized egg to be an abortion. With the clause disappearing from the consumer guide, abortion debates are on the rise. Scientific evidence does not officially conclude if the morning-after pill prevents a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.

The FDA removed the clause after a recent rebate sparked by a New York Times article. It turns out that the politically charged debate over morning-after pills and abortion, a divisive issue in this election year, is probably rooted in outdated or incorrect scientific guesses about how the pills work, reported Pam Belluck from the New York Times. Studies have not established that emergency contraceptive pills prevent fertilized eggs from implanting in the womb,” she said, citing leading scientists. “Rather, the pills delay ovulation, the release of eggs from ovaries that occurs before eggs are fertilized, and some pills also thicken cervical mucus so sperm have trouble swimming.

Kristen Moore, president of nonprofit advocacy group Reproductive Health Technologies Project suggests the FDA only included the statement originally to cover their bases. If you look at any drug label, there’s a lot of speculation. It could work this way or it could work that way, she states. As there are legitimate questions concerning how the pill first worked in the late nineties, Kristen’s statement is accurate.

Consumers are waiting on an announcement from the FDA to officially declare that the morning-after pill cannot be scientifically proven to prohibit implantation.

The FDA has not commented on the changes. Unless there is medical evidence supporting statements that the morning after pill does not hinder implantation Kristen Moore speculates that pro-lifers will continue to view the pill as potentially abortive.