Amelia Grant

Many people are confused about whether the morning-after pill (Plan B One-Step) and the abortion pill are the same things. This misunderstanding originates from erroneous emergency contraception assumptions. It's critical to understand that these two drugs have quite different aims and function in very different ways.

What Is The Morning-After Pill?
A hormonal contraceptive is the morning-after pill. It can help prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex or contraceptive failure. The morning-after pill is a single pill that contains the progestin levonorgestrel and is sold over-the-counter to persons of all ages. Plan B is one of the brand names for it. Next Step, One-Step One Dose, My Way, Take Action, and AfterPill is some of the titles available.

Although the precise mechanism by which the morning-after pill prevents pregnancy is unknown, it is thought to work differently depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle. The morning-after pill will not harm your pregnancy or induce an abortion if you take it while you are already pregnant.

What Is The Abortion Pill?
M&M, Mifeprex, RU486, and mifepristone are all names for the abortion pill, which is used as an early medical abortion option. It causes a pregnancy to be terminated and is only used once a pregnancy has been confirmed (and no more than 49 days have passed since a woman's last menstrual cycle).

The abortion pill was initially used safely in Europe, and in September 2000, the FDA approved its use in the United States. The abortion pill usually contains two medications: one to make the uterine lining to shed (making it impossible for a fertilized egg to remain attached) and another to cause the uterus to contract. Medical abortion is 95 to 97 percent effective in terminating a pregnancy when administered jointly.

Why There Is Confusion 
Much of the misunderstanding derives from incorrect assumptions about how the morning-after drug works. Plan B One-Step (and other morning-after pill brands) reduce your chances of becoming pregnant by delaying or stopping ovulation and/or interfering with sperm migration (causing it less likely that sperm will fertilize an egg).

The fundamental question is whether the morning-after pill stops a fertilized egg from implanting. Despite the fact that research demonstrates Plan B One-Step does not interfere with implantation, the morning-after pill's FDA labeling states that it "may hinder implantation."

Debate Over Emergency Contraception 
The FDA, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the National Institutes of Health all concur that the creation of pregnancy takes many days and is not complete until a fertilized egg implants in the uterine lining.

Only once implantation is complete is a woman deemed pregnant medically.

However, many people (including pro-life and religious groups) continue to believe that the morning-after pill prevents the implantation of a fertilized egg. They are eager to criticize its use and mistakenly identify it as an abortifacient (something that causes the pregnancy to end prematurely and causes an abortion). The incorrect belief that the morning-after pill induces abortion has created a barrier to the morning-after pill's availability and use.

Some religious women may not even inquire about it since they have been told that it causes abortions. There have even been cases where hospital emergency rooms refuse to give the morning-after pill to raped women.

The Bottom Line 
Morning-after pill supporters are adamant about informing the public that the medicine is not an abortion inducer. Abortion is defined by medical authorities as to the destruction of an implanted fertilized egg. Drugs and devices that act before implantation are defined as preventions of pregnancy rather than termination agents under federal policy, which aligns with the medical community.