February 2010: FEMINISTS CONTINUE THE FIGHT FOR UNRESTRICTED ACCESS TO MAP

(See Morning After Pill Petition to the FDA below, under Actions)

For more than 6 years, feminists in National Women’s Liberation, through the Morning-After Pill Conspiracy coalition, led a grassroots fight to get the Morning-After Pill (MAP) available to all women without any age or other restrictions.

On February 15, 2004, we began a civil disobedience campaign where 4,500 women signed a pledge promising to give a friend the MAP in defiance of the FDA’s prescription only requirement. In January 2005, nine of us got arrested at FDA headquarters as part of a larger protest of the FDA’s inaction. We then filed a lawsuit against the FDA, charging the agency with action based on anti-birth control politics, not science, and failing to follow its own procedures. (Tummino v. Hamburg)

In August 2006, our feminist organizing made gains: The FDA announced a compromise decision and approved Plan B for women 18 and older without a doctor’s prescription.

In March 2009, in Tummino v. Hamburg, the federal court ordered the FDA to make Plan B available to 17 year olds and to review its decision to deny a “Citizen’s Petition” filed in 2001 by 60+ women’s health and rights organizations asking FDA to make MAP available to all women over-the-counter without any age or other restrictions.

Why is this still an issue to feminists?

There is no medical reason to refuse young women access to MAP. The FDA’s review of the scientific and medical evidence about the Morning-After Pill and 60 national medical organizations recommended that MAP be available without a prescription. Women in more than 46 other countries can get MAP without a prescription. Why not here?