Emergency Contraception (EC) is safe and effective.

--Emergency contraception, also known as the “morning-after pill,” is an FDA- approved back-up birth control method used to prevent unintended pregnancy when a woman has unprotected sex, including when birth control fails or in the case of sexual assault. Emergency contraception pills (ECPs) are a higher dose of regular birth control pills which must be taken within 120 hours of unprotected intercourse to be effective, but are more effective the sooner they are taken.

--Oral Contraceptives, the same drugs found in ECPs, have been studied for over three decades. They have been studied more extensively and have been found safer than most drugs in medicine. ECPs are not associated with any harmful or significant side effects. Most women who take emergency contraception have no side effects, but side effects that occur in a small minority of users are minimal and include nausea, headache or vomiting.

--Increased access to emergency contraception has not been shown to encourage adolescents’ to participate in riskier sexual behavior or lead to less frequent use of other forms of contraception.