Emergency contraceptive approved by FDA

Late Friday evening, the Food and Drug Administration pushed through an approval of a new contraceptive that is effective if taken up to five days after intercourse. The drug, named “ella,” is already approved and in use in Europe. The new approval reignites the public debate between pro-choice and pro-life groups as the line between prevention and extermination continues to blur.

Ella’s effectiveness is not completely understood, because scientist cannot say for certain whether its works in a fashion similar to the abortion pill’s main chemical, RU-486. Anti-abortion institutions consider the prevention of a fertilized egg implanting in the uterus to be abortive, which is how ella appears to work. However, the drug appears to be ineffective to women already pregnant, leading other to believe that it works on the hormonal level, preventing the ovulation process. A female’s chances of getting pregnant after unprotected intercourse are 1 in 20. Plan B, the first approved emergency contraceptive made pregnancy half as likely, at 1 in 40. Ella will improve those odds further, by making pregnancy a 1 in 50 chance.

Politics have also been involved in the abortion debate when it comes to approving contraceptives. The Bush administration lobbied hard to prevent the approval of Plan B, and set the stipulation that the drug could not be distributed to women under seventeen. Plan B works to prevent ovulation in those who take it, by blocking the effects of the hormone progesterone. Doing this makes it less likely that a women’s egg will be released to be potentially fertilized by sperm.

The drug was developed in the United States by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health. It is manufactured by French drug maker HRA Pharma and will be distributed by New Jersey’s Watson Pharmaceuticals when it arrives on the market later this year.