The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday that it will change the labels on the packages of the Plan B emergency contraceptive pill, which women can take after sex to prevent pregnancy, to specify that they do not cause any abortion.
The aim of the new labels is to distinguish emergency contraception - also known as the morning-after pill - from abortion pills, which terminate a pregnancy once a fertilized egg has implanted in the woman's uterus.
Abortion rights activists march during a pro-abortion protest following the dismissal of the Roe v.
Wade in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2022. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
In a memo released Friday, the FDA clarified that taking Plan B pills is not the same as having an abortion, a fact long understood by the medical community.
"The evidence does not support that the drug affects implantation or the maintenance of a pregnancy after implantation, and therefore does not terminate a pregnancy," the FDA said in its statement.
The agency added that the emergency contraceptive works similarly to birth control in preventing pregnancy, but contains a higher dose of levonorgestrel, a type of synthetic progestin.
The pill prevents ovulation.
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About a quarter of women say they have used emergency contraceptive pills at some point, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey released last year.
Still, concerns have been raised that access to emergency contraception, such as Plan B, could be limited in some states after the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion.
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Nevada's Republican governor-elect said he would consider banning the pill during a debate this year.
Idaho school-based clinics also banned the pills under a law banning public funding of “abortion-related services” last year.
The FDA has approved Plan B for use up to 72 hours, or three days, after unprotected sex.
Women can purchase emergency contraception without a prescription.