Did you know that for emergency contraception (EC), the copper IUD is more than 99 percent effective while EC pills are less than 90 percent effective?  That means that you are ten times more likely to get pregnant if you take EC pills rather than using and IUD as EC.  Despite that fact, a recent study found that only 15 percent of family planning providers in California had offered the copper IUD as EC to their EC clients.  Women seeking EC deserve to be offered not only EC pills, which are convenient, but also the copper IUD as a more effective EC option.  Two studies found that when the copper IUD is offered, more than 10% of women seeking EC were interested in having a copper IUD inserted as EC. 

View the editorial on the copper IUD as EC by Peter Belden, Cynthia Harper, and Joe Speidel in the journal Contraception.