Plan B : Emergency Contraceptive Pill

Plan B is a progestin [4]-only emergency contraceptive pill (ECP) that can be taken within seventy-two hours of unprotected sex in order to prevent an unwanted pregnancy [5]. Plan B was created in response to the United States Food and Drug Administration?s (US FDA) 1997 request for new drug applications (NDAs) for a dedicated ECP product, and was approved for sales in the US in 1999. Duramed, a subsidiary of Barr Pharmaceuticals [6], manufactures Plan B for The Women?s Capital Corporation (WCC), which owns the patent for Plan B. This technology is important in part because it expands women?s reproductive rights [7] by giving them greater control over their fertility. The mechanism of action of Plan B also raises questions about the moral status of the zygote [8].