With the release of its Federal Policy Agenda, the Center for Reproductive Rights calls on policy-makers to demonstrate their commitment to women’s health and self-determination, and to acknowledge this nation’s obligation to respect reproductive rights as human rights. The Agenda, which the Center will distribute widely to officeholders, political candidates, the media, think tanks, and other organizations, calls on policymakers to take bold action in support of women’s reproductive health and autonomy, and sets forth concrete and attainable goals.
Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision recognizing a woman's right to abortion, remains under constant attack. Since the Center for Reproductive Rights first released its What If Roe Fell? report in 2004, the Supreme Court has become decidedly more conservative and less sympathetic to Roe, a fact that has emboldened anti-choice forces. The Center's report, "What if Roe Fell?", exposes anti-choice activists' latest strategies to criminalize abortion at every stage of a woman's pregnancy.
Resources
Every 10.5 seconds, there is an unplanned pregnancy in the United States. Every year, there are approximately three million unplanned pregnancies. Experts estimate that better access to emergency contraception, like Plan B, could prevent as many as half of those pregnancies from happening.
In 2005, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a federal court in New York for its failure to make the emergency contraceptive Plan B available without a prescription to women of all ages. Over a year later, the FDA did announce a decision to increase women’s access to Plan B, but with a caveat: only women over 18 could get the drug without a prescription and the drug would still be placed behind pharmacy counters, requiring identification to receive it.
Despite this rule change, months of testimony from high-level FDA officials and discovery documents in the lawsuit still reveal a behind-the-scenes decision-making process corrupted by politics. The Center is still pursuing its case to ensure that Plan B is granted true over-the-counter status and made widely available to women of all ages—particularly the most vulnerable population—young women.
Resources
