New study shows morning-after pill does not decrease pregnancies

Published: 2005-01-07

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A new study of the morning-after pill shows that the drug's increased availability does not reduce pregnancy rates, contrary to claims made by advocates of the emergency contraception pills called Plan B. "This study blows the lid off the main argument for putting morning-after pills on the drugstore shelf," said Cathy Cleaver Ruse, director of planning and information in the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. "Proponents have repeatedly claimed that making the drug available without a prescription would reduce abortion numbers by as many as half; now their own study debunks that claim." The study, which appears in the Jan. 5 Journal of the American Medical Association, was conducted at the University of California at San Francisco and studied 2,117 women ages 15-24 for six months.

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