Lead Plaintiffs in Lawsuit Against FDA Call
Crawford's Confirmation an Insult to Women, Demand the FDA approve Plan
B for
Over-the-Counter Sales
Statement
of Annie
Tummino, lead plaintiff of Tummino v. Crawford:
We, the plaintiffs in Tummino V. Crawford, regret that Lester Crawford
was
confirmed as FDA commissioner yesterday. We are suing Crawford because
he is violating
the rights of American women by withholding over-the-counter access to
the
Morning-After Pill- a safe, effective form of birth control. The full
text of
the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Annie Tummino and eight other women
from the
Morning-After Pill Conspiracy (including all contacts listed above),
can be
found at http://www.reproductiverights.org/crt_contraception.html#tummino.
The FDA has announced that a decision on the Morning-After Pill (MAP) will be made by September 1st, two years after Bar Laboratories submitted an application to make Plan B (a brand of the MAP) over-the-counter, and four years after over seventy medical and women’s organizations filed a “Citizen’s Petition” calling for the same action. We demand that Crawford stop holding American women’s health hostage by approving the application for over-the-counter sales immediately. In December of 2003 the FDA’s own medical advisory committees voted 23-4 that the Morning-After Pill should go over-the-counter, and voted unanimously that it is safe for over-the-counter sales.
We also reject any attempt to give the Morning-After Pill behind-the-counter status in order to impose a medically unnecessary age restriction. Behind-the-counter status still creates new obstacles to timely access by forcing women to find a pharmacy that stocks MAP and a pharmacist who is willing to dispense it to us. We refuse to be carded for birth control or allow ourselves to be separated off from young women. If you are old enough to be pregnant, you are old enough to decide not to be pregnant.
In 38 other countries, this drug is available without a doctor’s prescriptions, but in the U.S. women have to jump through hoops to get it. We demand that the United States catch up.
I needed the Morning-After pill after I went away for a long weekend and got a couple of days behind on my daily birth control pills. I had sex with my boyfriend after I got back and realized I was in trouble. I needed the Morning-After Pill as back-up but I didn’t have it at my fingertips. I started to panic because I work at a small business, I had sole responsibility for opening the office day and my boss was out. My doctor’s office was closed that morning and there was no way I could wait in a clinic for hours to be seen. Thankfully, I found a New York City hotline that allows a doctor to call in a prescription to a pharmacy for you without actually seeing you in person. I took Plan B, had no side effects at all, and didn’t get pregnant.
Because the Morning-After Pill is most effective at preventing pregnancy within 24 hours after sex, it’s vital that women have immediate, over-the-counter access to it. Women know when we don’t want to get pregnant- we shouldn’t need a doctor or pharmacist’s permission to control our lives. [more]
In January, nine women from the Morning-After Pill Conspiracy were arrested for sitting in at the FDA and demanding the Morning-After Pill go over-the-counter for all women. We have defied the prescription requirement by illegally distributing the Morning-After Pill and more than 2,500 women from across the country have pledges to do the same. (For more info go to
www.mapconspiracy.org). We pledge further acts of civil disobedience if Lester Crawford continues to hold hostage women’s access to birth control.
What
is the Morning-After Pill Conspiracy? The
MAP
Conspiracy is a coalition of feminist organizations leading the
grassroots
movement to make the Morning-After Pill an over-the-counter drug. The
name is a
tongue-and-cheek reference to the fact that women have to conspire to
break the
law just to get the Morning-After Pill. The FDA’s burdensome
prescription
requirement forces us to rely on friends who may have it because we
cannot get
MAP quickly when the need arises. We have held speak-outs on why women
need
easy access to the MAP and defied the prescription requirement by
publicly
handing out the pill in New York City, DC, Maryland and Florida. More
than 2,500
women around the country have signed the pledge to defy the
prescription by
"Giving a friend the Morning-After Pill.” The pledge is available
online
at www.mapconspiracy.org.