emergency contraception

[ih-mur-juhn-see kon-truh-sep-shuhn]

noun

1. a method for preventing pregnancy taken or used after sexual intercourse has already occurred, usually because other methods were unavailable or rendered ineffective.

   If you've had unprotected sex recently and have missed pills from the first seven days of your pack, you may need emergency contraception.

Word History and Origins

Origin of emergency contraception¹

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

It is even slow when it comes to women's reproductive health: only this week was it announced that the "morning after" pill - a form of emergency contraception available without prescription in more than 90 countries - had finally been approved for over the counter use in Japan.

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Tung worked extensively with the architect of Texas’ heartbeat bill; Lataif interned for the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion policy group that seeks to make IUDs and emergency contraception illegal and opposes many forms of in-vitro fertilization.

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Medical experts and reproductive health groups note that while some anti-abortion advocates classify IUDs and emergency contraception as “abortifacients,” these products prevent pregnancy and are not abortion-inducing.

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The vast majority of the prescriptions filled in the country are for generic drugs, from penicillin to blood thinners to emergency contraception, and many of those come from overseas, including India and China.

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Emergency contraception is already free of charge from most GPs and sexual health clinics but ministers say getting it over the counter is more of a "postcode lottery".

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