Drug company Pfizer Inc., is recalling 1 million packets of birth control pills, after finding an error on the packaging.

The Huffington Post reports, Pfizer announced a massive recall of 14 lots of Lo/Ovral 28 tablets and 14 lots of generic Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets.The pills are marketed in the U.S. by Akrimax Rx Products.

Some of the birth control packets had too many active tablets, while others didn’t have enough. The normal amount of oral tablets is 21, along with 7 inactive sugar tablets, which help regulate a woman’s menstrual period, while simultaneously assisting with pregnancy prevention.

A combination of human and machine error led to this prescription shortcoming, and a company spokesperson said the issue has been remedied, but still may raise the amount of undesired pregnancies.

After a large amount of panicked twitter exchanges hitting the internet today, Pfizer began to reach out to women consumers directly.

“Unfortunately, this manufacturing error diminishes people’s confidence in an extremely important and safe method of contraception”, Dr. Vanessa Cullins, vice president of external medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told MSNBC.

The packages that have been affected have an expiration dates ranging from July 31, 2013 to March 31, 2014.

More From Newstalk 1290