Emergency contraception, or emergency birth control, is used to prevent a woman from getting pregnant after she has had unprotected sex. Unprotected sex can mean that no method of birth control was used, that a method of birth control was used but did not work—like a condom breaking—or that a woman was forced to have sex when she did not want to. In these situations, emergency contraception offers women an effective second chance at preventing an unplanned pregnancy.
Approximately 2.7 million unplanned pregnancies occur each year, of which 54% result in abortion.2 Many experts believe that greater awareness of emergency contraception may help reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions that occur each year.3 Although emergency contraception has been around for a long time, many people still don’t know about it. The fact is, emergency contraception has been available since the mid 1960s and it is currently available in over 100 countries.4
Although emergency contraception offers safe, effective backup protection, it should never take the place of a regular method of birth control. There are more effective methods of birth control that should be used on a regular basis to prevent pregnancy. And it is important to remember that emergency contraception does not protect you from HIV infection (the virus that causes AIDS) and any other sexually transmitted disease (STD).
>>Learn more about contraception by visiting our resource library.
Emergency contraception is not the same as RU-486 (the abortion pill). Emergency contraception is used to prevent pregnancy, and it’s not effective if you are already pregnant. Also, Plan B® will not affect an existing pregnancy.
View Important Safety Information and full Prescribing Information.