U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Introduction

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves drugs and devices that are used for birth control, offering a list of different kinds of birth control in a Birth Control Guide.  It refers globally to all of these birth control methods as "contraception" or "contraceptives."

This terminology is highly contentious because it includes surgical sterilization, and because it ignores differences in the mechanisms of action of some products that are considered morally significant by many people.  It has now become legally significant because of a Department of Health and Human Services regulation that will force all insurance plans to provide coverage for anything the Food and Drug Administration has approved as a 'contraceptive.'

The regulation has launched a firestorm of protest across the United States.  It is generating lawsuits against the U.S. federal government, as well as legislation in some states to prevent the regulation from taking effect. 

The following table classifies birth control methods listed in the FDA Birth Control Guide  as "contraceptive", "embryocide" or "abortifacient" according to their reported mechanism of action.  Some drugs or devices may have more than one mechanism of action.

The classification here uses the following definitions:

• Contraceptive: a drug or device that prevents or may prevent the union of sperm and egg, thus preventing the formation of an embryo.
• Embryocide: a drug or device that causes or may cause the death of a human embryo before implantation in the uterus.
• Abortifacient: a drug or device that probably has or is designed or intended to cause the death of a human embryo or foetus after implantation in the uterus.

For more detailed explanation of this terminology, see Clearing Rhetorical Minefields.