Hey there! If you're a woman who has sex and doesn't want to have a baby, and so relies on at least one form of birth control to keep your body from baking a November surprise, you need to go read this rather startling piece on Mother Jones about how the morning after pill—an emergency contraceptive that women take when their first form of birth control fails—is completely ineffective for women who weigh more than 176 pounds, and only kinda works for women who weigh more than 165 pounds:

The European manufacturer of an emergency contraceptive pill identical to Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill, will warn women that the drug is completely ineffective for women who weigh more than 176 pounds and begins to lose effectiveness in women who weigh more than 165 pounds. HRA Pharma, the French manufacturer of the European drug, Norlevo, is changing its packaging information to reflect the weight limits. European pharmaceutical regulators approved the change on November 10, but it has not been previously reported.

This development has implications for American women. Some of the most popular emergency contraceptive pills sold over the counter in the United States—including the one-pill drugs Plan B One-Step, Next Choice One Dose, and My Way, and a number of generic two-pill emergency contraceptives—have a dosage and chemical makeup identical to the European drug. Weight data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that, at 166 pounds, the average American woman is too heavy to use these pills effectively.

It's pretty distressing to realize that the Plan B packets I have stored in my bathroom are about as effective as prayer when it comes to preventing pregnancy.