How the morning-after pill has been pulled into abortion battles

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A package of Plan B contraceptive is displayed at a pharmacy in California in 2013.



How the morning-after pill has been pulled into abortion battles

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5013128-how-the-morning-after-pill-has-been-pulled-into-abortion-battles/

by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech - 12/01/24 9:35 AM ET



The morning-after pill is legal across the U.S., even in the states with the strictest abortion bans — but many Americans don’t know that, in part due to a mistaken belief that the pill is abortion medication.

Nearly a third of American adults are unsure if emergency contraception like the morning-after pill is legal in their state and 5 percent think it is illegal there, according to a 2023 survey from health policy nonprofit KFF.

A recent survey conducted by emergency contraception company Cadence OTC, whose results were shared with The Hill, found even more widespread confusion about the pill’s legality: Just 40 percent of participants knew that emergency contraception in the form of the morning-after pill is legal in all 50 states.

“It’s primarily a result of some people conflating the morning-after pill with the abortion pill, believing that the morning-after pill will end an early pregnancy and therefore is illegal in states with abortion bans,” Cadence OTC co-Founder Samantha Miller wrote to The Hill. “Many people do not understand the morning-after pill’s active ingredient and mechanism of action.”

The over-the-counter form of the morning-after pill is one dose of levonorgestrel — a hormone that is used to delay ovulation. The pill is most effective if taken within three days of unprotected sex but can delay ovulation for up to five days, the length of time sperm can survive in the vagina or uterus.

Delaying ovulation in this way can prevent an unwanted pregnancy from beginning, rather than terminating a pregnancy like abortion medication does.

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