Why is the Morning-After Pill So Important to Women’s Freedom?

Why is the Morning-After Pill So Important to Women’s Freedom?

Restricting the Morning-After Pill to females ages 17 and older makes it physically inaccessible to everyone because it is kept “behind-the-counter” at pharmacies and an ID must be shown to buy it. The Morning-After Pill is already available without a prescription in at least 63 other countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Denmark and Ghana.  

National Women’s Liberation has led the grassroots fight for unrestricted access to the Morning-After Pill in the United States.  From sitting in at the FDA, demonstrating in front of HHS, organizing speakouts and filing a lawsuit against the agencies, NWL members have been at the forefront of this struggle, winning a huge victory in 2006 when the FDA decided to eliminate the prescription requirement for women ages 18 and up, and another victory in the Tummino case in 2009 when the Judge ordered the FDA to also eliminate the prescription requirement for girls aged 17.

Feminist organizing – in the streets and in the courts – has forced the FDA to grant over-the-counter access to the Morning-After Pill for women ages 17 and up. The position of NWL has been uncompromising in this fight: any female old enough to get pregnant is old enough to decide that she doesn’t want to be pregnant. For more information about NWL and how to join the campaign for unrestricted access to the Morning-After Pill, go to: www.womensliberation.org.