To sign the Petition, please send your name, city and state to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with “MAP Petition” in the subject line. Only your name, city and state will be given to the FDA, but send your full contact information to hear more about the campaign.
ABOUT THE MORNING-AFTER PILL
Because all women should have the right to control when and if we have children and should have unrestricted access to safe and effective forms of birth control;
Because the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) review of the scientific and medical evidence about the Morning-After Pill (“MAP” also known as “emergency contraception” or Plan B™) has found that MAP is safer than aspirin, and that there is no medical reason to restrict the sale of the MAP to pharmacies or to justify other so-called “point of sale” restrictions about where or how MAP can be sold;
Because only allowing MAP to be available from behind a drug counter allows a pharmacist to block women’s access by refusing to sell it due to sexist attitudes, opposition to birth control, or misinformation about who can buy it or how many packs can be sold, and because pharmacies are not open at all times that a woman may need quick access to MAP;
Because any woman old enough to get pregnant is old enough to decide that she doesn’t want to be pregnant. Women will not be divided by age restrictions – all women must have access to the MAP without having to show ID/have a driver’s license;
Because all women need over the counter access to this safe and effective form of birth control which is only effective when taken within 120 hours after sex;
Because a new decision on the availability of the Morning-After Pill has been ordered by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York;
WE DEMAND that the FDA make the Morning-After Pill immediately available over-the-counter to all women regardless of age.
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FEMINISTS CONTINUE THE FIGHT FOR UNRESTRICTED ACCESS TO THE MORNING-AFTER PILL
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 , (Tummino v. Hamburg), charging the agency with acting based on anti-birth control politics, not science, and failing to follow its own procedures.
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?
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