Bunnies and The Morning After Pill

March 23rd was the one year anniversary of a major victory the Center for Reproductive Rights won against the FDA. A federal court rule that the FDA "acted in bad faith and in response to political pressure" when it decided to restrict Emergency Contraception (EC) based on a directive from the Bush administration.

Although EC is now available without a prescription, the FDA has completely stalled on removing remaining restrictions - even though its own scientists declared the restrictions unnecessary. Currently, pharmacies and clinics must keep EC behind the counter and anyone who wants it must prove they're 17 or older by showing ID in order to buy it without a prescription.

As a teenager myself, I have to be honest and say that by doing this, the FDA is effectively keeping EC away from teenagers who are attempting to make the right decision for themselves and their futures. Sure, you can argue that EC is way more available than it used to be and showing your ID is really not that big a deal, but at the same time there are so many girls that are intensely influenced by the stigma attached to buying EC in this way. And at the same time, I have heard so many stories of girls, usually in small or rural towns, who have mustered the courage to try to buy EC and have been pressured or harassed by the pharmacist or even straight up denied the product. By keeping these restrictions, the FDA may as well still make EC completely unavailable. While a lot of this problem has to do with societal issues and stigmas, a lot of it can be handled by the FDA doing what it was court ordered to do.

The Center for Reproductive Rights created this video featuring bunnies - because everybody knows that bunnies are the authorities on reproductive health - to remind everybody that President Obama promised that his administration would respect science, and yet his FDA is still taking its sweet ass time.

Tell the FDA to Act on Emergency Contraception from Center for Reproductive Rights on Vimeo.

Tell the FDA that time is up here.

*Thanks to Janna from the Center for alerting the FBomb about this!