FDA panel to weigh ‘ella,’ a longer-working alternative to ‘morning-after pill’

June 11, 2010

A French drug company is hoping to offer American women something their European counterparts already have: a pill that works long after “the morning after.” The drug, dubbed ella, would be sold as a contraceptive — one that could prevent pregnancy for as many as five days following unprotected sex. But the new drug is a close chemical relative of the abortion pill RU-486, raising the possibility that it could theoretically be used to induce abortion by making the womb inhospitable for an embryo. (Washington Post)