The New York Daily News website is calling it Plan C, a morning after pill that claims to be efficacious even 5 days after unprotected sex.
This one as it is claimed offers more protection against unwanted pregnancy than other pills currently on the market.
The reason for more effectiveness is because it works differently: whereas other pills currently on the market destroy an embryo, this one delays the release of the egg itself.
Studies conducted have found that if taken within 72 hours of having sex, the pill can prevent up to 66% of pregnancies; whereas it will still prevent 50% of pregnancies if had within 5 days of having had sex.
Experts have called the development of the pill “encouraging” since with the currently available morning after pill, no significant reduction in abortion rates have been seen.
American women may not rejoice yet; it’s not about to reach American shores just yet. According to Dr. Jill Maura Rabin, head of urogynecology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, “It was a small study. We need more safety data.”
“It makes the lining of the uterus hostile to implantation,” Rabin was quoted as having said. “Nothing that I have read indicates that it would do anything to an established pregnancy.”
The NY Daily News article has got it all wrong — and it quotes the UK’s Daily Mail, another publication notorious for mis-explaining science topics AND for rushing to cover stories related to women’s health without using good data to describe them.
According to the World Health Organization, the “morning-after pill” (emergency contraception or EC) currently available in the US, called Plan B, can be taken up to 5 days after intercourse — even though it was originally marketed for just 3. There are other brands of EC, marketed in countries or now as a generic in the US, but ALL have the same kind of hormone, ALL work by preventing ovulation and have no effect if ovulation has already occurred, and NONE “destroy an embryo”! The writer might have been thinking of the medication abortion (“abortion pill”/RU-486/Mifepristone), but in almost all countries you must be between 5 and 8 weeks pregnant to use it and you must ingest it in a doctor’s office.
I hope this helps clear up some of the very-muddled information that made its way to readers of this site! Thanks!