FDA scrubs earlier warnings, now says Plan B contraception can’t cause abortion

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week scrubbed earlier warnings it had issued about the possible effects of emergency contraception, claiming now that they work only to inhibit ovulation and do not function as abortion pills.

The FDA in its updated guidance on the Plan B pill had erased any mention of the possibility that the drug might prevent a human embryo from implanting in a woman’s uterus, thus effectively functioning as an abortion drug. 

Earlier warnings from the agency had said that the drug “may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb (implantation).”

In its new guidance, the agency said that “evidence does not support that the drug affects implantation or maintenance of a pregnancy after implantation, therefore it does not terminate a pregnancy.”

Abortion and contraception advocates had long criticized the inclusion of the implantation warning on the drug, claiming regulators lacked evidence to support those conclusions.