The first seven days.

Wednesday’s New York Times car­ried an arti­cle by Pam Bel­luck, “Abor­tion Qualms on Morning-​​After Pill May Be Unfounded”. The arti­cle details the ongo­ing debate over the use of so-​​called “morn­ing after” pills, mar­keted in the United States under the brand names Plan B and ella, and how that debate may be pred­i­cated on bad or incom­plete science.

The debate over these drugs has strayed from the realm of health and med­i­cine into the region of politics.

There are three drugs in the debate, each of which has a dif­fer­ent mech­a­nism of action.

The first of these drugs to come on the mar­ket, and the most con­tro­ver­sial, is mifepre­stone, for­merly called RU-​​486 and sold as “Mifeprex” or “The Early Option Pill”.

Lev­onorgestrel is mar­keted as “Plan B One-​​Step”, “Next Choice” and “Lev­onorgestrel Tablets”.

The newest of these drugs is ulipristal acetate, which is being sold as “ella”.

First, let’s look at how babies are made, then we can dis­cuss how these drugs work. (more…)