LANSING, Mich. — In light of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion indicating that the court is prepared to strike down Roe V. Wade, people are asking, would this outlaw Plan B as well?
"We don't know if Plan B actually qualifies under that umbrella of drugs because we don't know how to interpret that law," said Farah Jalloul, director of professional development with the Michigan Pharmacists Association.
Jalloul says her team has been getting "nonstop questions" regarding the future of Plan B, also known as the morning after pill, since the Supreme Court draft leak.
If Roe V. Wade is overturned, Michigan will once again follow a 1931 state law that outlaws abortion in most instances, including the sale of pills or drugs that induce it.
However, will Plan B, a pill authorized by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999, be included in that ruling?
"Whenever a law is vague, you've got to worry that it can be used in ways that it was not really written to cover," said Mae Kuykendall, professor at the Michigan State University College of Law.
The FDA defines Plan B as an emergency contraception or a back up method of birth control. It works primarily by stopping the release of an egg from an ovary or preventing a sperm from fertilizing an egg.
If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb, however the drug does not harm an already fertilized egg.
"Right now, the science behind it is that, as a pharmacist, Plan B does not cause abortion, and it does not cause a miscarriage," said Jalloul.
Kuykendall said, however, that "if the court does what everyone understands it's about to do, which is to overturn Roe v. Wade, and Casey, then that would open up the question of vagueness in the now governing law."
Although Plan B does not interfere with an egg that's inside a womb, the argument could be made that it still prevents life because it interrupts the natural process that leads to the fertilization of an egg.
The argument is referred to as "potential life," but Kuykendall pointed out that it can take you down a rabbit hole of what else interrupts the potential of new life?
"I've jokingly told my class that anytime two fertile people of the opposite sex are alone in a room together, and of age, there's potential life in that room," said Kuykendall. "So what is potential life?"
Although it may appear that Plan B will not be outlawed, no one will know for sure until the high court makes their final ruling on Roe v. Wade and the implications of that ruling play out in the courts.
"I think it's just that people don't know what to expect at this point," said Jalloul.
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