Almost all women will use some form of birth control in their lifetime. Even so, emergency contraception like the Plan B One-Step pill has long been vilified by the anti-abortion movement. And it's likely to face renewed attacks in the wake of the Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade. The problem is that anti-abortion groups often misrepresent Plan B as abortion medication. It's not: Plan B prevents pregnancy within 72 hours after unprotected sex or failure of another birth control method by temporarily delaying ovulation — the release of an egg from an ovary. It won't affect an existing pregnancy or the ability to get pregnant later on. Plan B One-Step Photographer: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images/Getty Images That hasn't stopped some lawmakers, like Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, from spreading misinformation about the drug. Some of the issues trace back to outdated language in Plan B's labeling, which says the drug may prevent "attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterus," a process known as implantation. Research suggests that's not the case, and the International Federation of Gynecology & Obstetrics and other medical groups have advocated for the US Food and Drug Administration to remove that language, as regulators did in Europe years ago. "The history of Plan B is kind of a black eye in the face of the FDA," says Christopher ChoGlueck, an assistant professor of ethics at New Mexico Tech whose research focuses on how antiabortion advisers to the agency influenced the drug's label in the early 2000s. "It's a really nefarious case of providers and advisers imposing their values on evidence." Confusion around how Plan B works has already impacted access. Before the reversal of Roe, nine states had adopted restrictions on emergency contraception, according to the Guttmacher Institute. And though all forms of birth control remain legal after the Supreme Court decision, some providers worry that offering emergency contraception could put them at risk. In Kansas City, Missouri, for example, the Saint Luke's Health System stopped providing emergency contraception late last month following a statewide ban on abortion. Within 24 hours, Saint Luke's reversed its decision after the Missouri attorney general said that law didn't prohibit the use of Plan B. Fears about restricted access to Plan B have also contributed to a spike in demand for the product at CVS, Rite Aid, Walmart, Amazon and on telehealth platforms like Nurx, Wisp and Alpha Medical. The campaign to revise the label is picking up steam. But it's up to the two private-equity firms that own Plan B through their company, Foundation Consumer Healthcare, to work with US regulators to make changes. (The FDA and Foundation didn't respond to requests for comment.) Until that happens, Plan B will remain under threat, according to Mara Gandal-Powers, director of birth control access and senior counsel for reproductive rights and health at the National Women's Law Center. "We've started to see over the last couple of years an increase in people more explicitly targeting Plan B," she says. "This is just the beginning." —Riley Griffin |
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