The FDA approved a longer lasting emergency contraceptive called Ella. This pill will prevent pregnancy for up to five days after unprotected sex, which competes with the Plan B pill that prevents pregnancy for up to three days after unprotected sex. This prevents sperm from reaching a woman’s egg and the releasing of the egg, but the lining of the uterus is also affected because the hormones in Ella block progesterone activity that is needed for a pregnancy.
            An egg may be fertilized at one point, but due to the low progesterone levels, the pill could possibly terminate existing pregnancies. This puts Ella in the same category as RU-486, which is the abortion pill.
            Side affects are nausea, headache and abdominal pain. A prescription will be needed for Ella when it first comes out for all ages, unlike Plan B, which is available without a prescription to women over the age of 17. Ella is available for use in Europe, and will be available in America sometime this fall.
            LSU students voiced concern over the safety of the pill, and most said they would not use it.
            “No, I wouldn’t use it because it doesn’t seem natural. It might mess up my body for the future when I decide to have children,” said Ariana Baltazar, sophomore.
            Despite what the majority of students had to say, Ella is proven to be safe through trial runs according to the Food and Drug Administration. The student health center on campus does not have the pill yet, and they do not know when it will arrive.  A nurse at the health center said that Ella should not take the place of a birth control pill and should not be used often, but it is safe to use.
            A representative from Planned Parenthood of Baton Rouge agreed that the pill is safe and will be available this fall. It will not harm the body but due to the pill being stronger than Plan B, it has stronger hormones. If a woman wants to have children in the future, the representative says Ella should not be taken on a routine basis. The difference between Ella and a regular birth control is that a birth control pill simply releases certain hormones to keep a woman’s eggs from releasing, and Ella prevents sperm from reaching the eggs.
            According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 98 percent of sexually active American women have used some form of birth control, and only about 6 percent have used an emergency contraceptive pill.  The CDC says, “The most popular method of birth control was the oral contraceptive pill, used by 11.6 million women in the United States.” Almost half of the pregnancies in the United States are unplanned, and 7 out of 10 women have had unprotected sex. Birth Control has been distributed in America since 1960.
 
Links
www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/UnintendedPregnancy/Contraception.htm
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38697798/ns/health-sexual_health/
www.womenshealth.about.com/od/thepill/a/howpillworks.htm