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February 2006

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Emergency Contraception

By Eleanor j. Bader
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February 2006
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W hen Annie Tummino went on vacation two years ago, she forgot to take her birth control pills for several days. Despite three summers interning at the National Organization for Women (NOW) in New York and a post-college year as a counselor at Planned Parenthood of Western Massachusetts, she was terrified, desperate to get hold of the Morning After Pill (MAP). 

“I was really freaking out,” Tummino recalls. “Luckily, when I looked online I found www.not-2- late.com, a hotline run by doctors. I contacted them and after a five- minute conversation with a counselor, they called in a prescription for Plan B Emergency Contraception [EC]. A few hours after contacting them, I went to the drug store, picked up two pills, and took them. I know I was lucky to get the pills, but it showed me how much crap and panic and how much rearranging of life goes on when the Morning After Pill is not available over the counter [OTC].” 

At the time of her pregnancy scare, Tummino was already a seasoned activist. She had been involved in New York state NOW’s Reproductive Rights Task Force since 2003 and had participated in civil disobedience in support of OTC MAP access. Later, following leadership changes in NOW, she joined the Women’s Liberation Birth Control Project (WLBCP), part of the Morning After Pill Conspiracy. 

Conspirators including WLBCP; Gainesville, Florida NOW’s Young Feminist Task Force; Gainesville Women’s Liberation; Utah NOW’s Young Feminist Task Force; and others have organized demonstrations, sit-ins, and speak-outs and have risked arrest to hand out emergency contraception to women desiring it. 

Emergency Contraception (or EC, a term used interchangeably with the Morning After Pill) was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999 and has been available by prescription throughout the U.S. since then. According to MayoClinic.com, “Human conception rarely occurs immediately after intercourse. Instead, it occurs as long as several days later, after ovulation. During the time between intercourse and conception, sperm travels through the fallopian tube until the egg appears.” EC prevents sperm from reaching the egg and keeps the fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall if it is taken within 72-hours of having unprotected sex. 

In the nearly seven years since the FDA approved doctor-dispensed EC, several states (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Washington) have made it available without a prescription. Sadly, even in these places, access remains limited. According to Carol Cox, a spokesperson for Barr Pharma- ceuticals, owners of the patent for Plan B, one of the most popular forms of EC, “Pharmacy laws vary from state to state and the Board of Pharmacy in each place decides what it will do. In each of the locations where it is available without a prescription, the state requires pharmacists to attend training seminars and be certified before they can give it out. This means that not every pharmacy in a particular state will be able to distribute EC. In most places the pharmacist learns the questions to ask to make sure the woman is a good candidate for the pills. In no state can a woman get EC without the Q and A. If EC was sold over the counter, the woman would not need to talk to a pharmacist or get a prescription. She would just pick it up, read the package, take the pills, and not have to worry about unwanted pregnancy.” 

EC is available in 102 countries, Cox adds, 34 of which sell it over the counter—something more than 70 U.S. groups, including the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, the National Black Women’s Health Project, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America support. These groups have petitioned the FDA to make the drug available for women in the U.S. 

In early 2005 the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and nine individuals from the Morning After Pill Conspiracy. The lawsuit seeks to make Plan B available over the counter for women of all ages. 

The petitioners in the case, Tummino v. von Eschenbach , argue that, “Limiting EC to prescription use is not necessary for the protection of public health…. Its administration is simple and relies only on assessment as to time elapsed since sexual intercourse…. The condition that EC treats—contraceptive failure or the failure to use contraception during intercourse—is one that is readily diagnosable by a woman.” 

This is true, Tummino states, regardless of whether the woman is a teenager, young adult, or middle-aged. “The right-wing has said that OTC access will encourage teens to have random, unprotected sex. But the MAP Conspiracy believes that if you are old enough to get pregnant you are old enough to decide not to have a baby. Putting age restrictions on access puts a behind-the-counter status on it. If you look young will you be carded by a pharmacist to get the birth control you need? Having to ask for EC puts all women in a bad position. It makes EC seem sleazy.” 

While the plaintiffs were in court in late December, the case could take years to resolve. This is why the Morning After Pill Conspiracy is continuing to pressure the FDA. “Historically, all legal changes in this country have been made by strong, grassroots people’s movements,” says petitioner’s attorney Andrea Costello of Southern Legal Counsel. “The law follows what the people demand. I’ve seen a groundswell of support from regular women across the country who need OTC access to EC. They understand that the anti-reproductive rights politics of this Administration are the real reason MAP is being withheld.”

Eleanor J. Bader is a freelance journalist and co-author of Targets of Hatred . 
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