A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics says that as many as 11% of all women between the ages of 15 and 44 have used the “morning after” pill at least one time.  That would mean that 5.8 million women have been using the drug after fearing pregnancy after unprotected intercourse.

The results were reported after doing interviews with 12,270 women over the 2006 – 2010 time period.   The pills were approved in 1998 and allow for use up to five days after intercourse.  But the concern for many experts is that there isn’t a wealth of knowledge of the long-term effects of using the pill, especially in a repetitive context.

“There’s not a whole lot of information out there about it,” says Beth Jordan Mynett, medical director of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, based in Washington, D.C. “There are price issues and access issues and they are not insubstantial. It’s not universally stocked and available.”

It turns out that younger women are more likely to use the pill, with 23% of all women between the ages of 20 and 24 using it at least once.  Only five percent of women between 30 and 44 have used it.  Most of the women who’ve used the pill are white and hispanic women who are college educated and have never been married.

Mynett says that the “morning after pill” should not be confused with the “abortion pill.”

“Emergency contraception does not cause an abortion. You take emergency contraception pills to largely prevent ovulation from happening. This is pregnancy prevention,” she says. “The abortion pill stops a pregnancy that’s already existing. The abortion pill is taken after you already know you’re pregnant and it’s given by a health care provider.”

– All Christian News