Easy supply of "morning-after pill" does not cut pregnancy rate--study

Chelsea Polis, lead researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that readily available emergency contraception had no impact on the pregnancy rate.

She added, “Our review suggests that strategies for advance provision of emergency contraception which have been tested to date do not appear to reduce unintended pregnancy at the population level.”

Review of 11 international trials
Researchers from the Cochrane Group, a UK-based non-profit organization that periodically evaluates medical research, looked at 11 international trials involving a total of more than 7,500 women from the U.S., China, India, and Sweden.

Reviewing the effectiveness of advance provision of morning-after pills, they found that while the use of emergency contraception doubled over a period of six years in the UK, it failed to reduce rates of pregnancy or abortion.

The researchers noted that the number of women requesting abortions after using emergency contraception from 1996-2002 had surged from six to 12 percent.

Experts speculate that women at high risk of pregnancy did not take the pills at all, while those considered at a lower risk were more likely to use them.

Chelsea Polis said, "Some women may not use emergency contraception when needed, even if they have it in advance. Like condoms, emergency contraception will not work if it is not used."

Accessibility to emergency contraception not linked to promiscuousness
The study found that women who had a stash of the emergency contraception were not less vigilant about safe sex.

They did not indulge in unprotected sex or catch a sexually transmitted disease. Neither did they change their use of other contraceptive methods.

Polis stated, "Early provision didn't make women less careful. It didn't make women more promiscuous. And it didn't change their behavior in terms of other contraceptives. So, women still need easy access and information about emergency contraception.

“But it won't be a silver bullet in terms of reducing unwanted pregnancies. We need to do a better job of educating women about both emergency contraception and more effective and reliable methods of contraception.”

The new study is published in The Cochrane Library.

A little about emergency contraception
Emergency contraception can prevent pregnancy in a number of ways -- by stopping ovulation, blocking fertilization of an egg, or preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb.

According to the Family Planning Association, emergency contraception can prevent nearly 95 percent of pregnancies when taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex, and up to 58 percent when taken between 49 and 72 hours after intercourse.