A new study reported in The Cochrane Library found that giving women emergency contraceptive drugs before they're needed doesn’t reduce pregnancy rates.
Emergency contraception works up to five days after unprotected sex. However, some countries don’t offer these drugs over the counter and it may be difficult to arrange a doctors appointment in time. To combat these problems, some have advocated providing sets of emergency contraceptive pills to women in advance. Opponents of this plan have argued that making these pills available preemptively would encourage using these drugs as a primary contraceptive. This study seems to invalidate both opinions.
The research covered 11 trials with 7,695 women from the US, China, India, and Sweden. The study also found that having these emergency contraceptives available before hand didn't affect rates
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2010.