You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

NYC Activists Stage Flash Mob to Demand Universal Access to Morning-After Pill

HeadlineMar 27, 2013

Activists in New York City staged a flash mob inside a pharmacy on Tuesday to demand unfettered access to emergency contraception. The morning-after pill is available without a prescription to those 17 and older. In 2011, Obama’s Health and Human Services head, Kathleen Sebelius, overruled FDA drug regulators for the first time in history and rejected making it over-the-counter and available without a prescription to women of all ages. Purchasers still need to show ID to buy it. The group National Women’s Liberation has been fighting for universal access to the morning-after pill through a federal lawsuit with a decision expected in the next week. At Tuesday’s action, dozens of people stocked boxes of Plan B on the shelves and called for it to be in front of the counter — not behind it. Brooke Eliazar-Macke said she joined the lawsuit in part because of her own experience.

Brooke Eliazar-Macke: “As a teenager, I needed the morning-after pill, and I couldn’t get it. Because of the age requirement, I couldn’t buy it on my own. And so I risked pregnancy rather than being able to buy a safe and effective form of birth control. And no girl or woman should have to do that.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top