June 6, 2012

Abortion Qualms on Morning-After Pill May Be Unfounded

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Labels inside every box of morning-after pills, drugs widely used to prevent pregnancy after sex, say they may work by blocking fertilized eggs from implanting in a woman’s uterus. Respected medical authorities, including the National Institutes of Health and the Mayo Clinic, have said the same thing on their Web sites…After The Times asked about this issue, A.D.A.M., the firm that writes medical entries for the National Institutes of Health Web site, deleted passages suggesting emergency contraceptives could disrupt implantation. The Times, which uses A.D.A.M.’s content on its health Web page, updated its site. The medical editor in chief of the Web site for the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Roger W. Harms, said “we are champing at the bit” to revise the entry if the Food and Drug Administration changes labels or other agencies make official pronouncements. “These medications are there to prevent or delay ovulation,” said Dr. Petra M. Casey, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Mayo. “They don’t act after fertilization.”

Additional coverage: The Atlantic Wire, NY Times Blog, San Jose Mercury News, My Fox Philadelphia, The Hill Blog

 

NY Times by Pam Belluck

Tags: birth control, Dr. Petra M. Casey, Dr. Roger W. Harms, National institutes of Health, NY Times, ObGyn, Women's Health

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