Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About...
Types of Emergency Contraception
What is the difference between emergency contraception, the "morning after pill", and the "day after pill"?
Actually, there is no difference. Emergency
contraceptive pills are often called "morning after pills"
and sometimes even "day after pills" because you can use
them after sex to prevent
pregnancy. Most of the time, when someone mentions “emergency
contraceptive pills,” “morning after pills,” or
the “day after pill,” they are talking about using the
same hormones found in regular daily
oral contraceptive pills to reduce
your chances of becoming pregnant if you had sex without using
contraception, you think your birth control failed, or you were forced
to have sex.
Even though there’s no difference between these terms, calling
emergency contraceptive
pills “morning after pills” or “day after pills”
can be misleading because you can use them right away – and
you have up to 120 hours (five days) after sex to take the pills and
still prevent pregnancy. That means you don’t have to wait until
the morning after, and you can still use emergency contraception even
if it takes you longer than the morning after to get it (Need to get
it now in the U.S? Click
here). Keep in mind that it is better to start using emergency
contraception as soon as possible because it is most
effective the sooner it is taken after sex.
Some people get confused and think that emergency
contraceptive pills, or morning after pills, are the same as “abortion
pills” They aren’t. First,
RU-486 (also known as the French abortion pill, mifepristone,
and Mifeprex) contains a completely different drug than the hormones
found in the birth control pills used for emergency contraception.
Second, emergency contraceptive pills prevent pregnancy,
so they work differently than
the abortion pill (Find out more about how the “morning after
pill” differs from the abortion pill here.)