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.”