---

COMPANY WANTS TO SELL 'MORNING AFTER PILL' OVER THE COUNTER

But Plan B drug is still an abortifacient, not a contraceptive

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A company that sells a brand of an abortifacient morning-after pill wants authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to offer the pill over the counter without a prescription, claiming that it is merely another option for contraception.

The company, Women's Capital Corp. (WCC), based in Washington, claims that their Plan B version, made by Gedeon Richter Ltd. of Hungary, is different from Mifepristone RU-486, which induces a miscarriage at any time after conception. By contrast, says Sharon Camp, founder and chief executive of WCC, Plan B uses progestin, a hormone used in contraceptive pills, to interfere with ovulation or prevent fertilization. "We believe that removing the prescription requirement is critical to giving women timely access to back-up birth control," Camp says -- clearly stating that the pills are contraceptive in intent.

However, according to a standard embryology textbook, "Postcoital birth control pills ('morning after pills') may be prescribed in an emergency (e.g., following sexual abuse). Ovarian hormones (estrogen) taken in large doses within 72 hours after sexual intercourse usually prevent implantation of the blastocyst, probably by altering tubal motility, interfering with corpus luteum function, or causing abnormal changes in the endometrium. These hormones prevent implantation, not fertilization. Consequently, they should not be called contraceptive pills. Conception occurs but the blastocyst does not implant. It would be more appropriate to call them 'contraimplantation pills'. Because the term "abortion" refers to a premature stoppage of a pregnancy, the term 'abortion' could be applied to such an early termination of pregnancy." (See The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1998, 6th ed.), Chapter 2, a textbook by Keith L. Moore and T.V.N. Persaud, under #5, p.532)

For newswire coverage:
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=2599188

 Back to Top

---

MORE NEWS: LifeSiteNews.com Home Page  Last 10 Days   Archives   Special Reports

Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.