National Women’s Liberation continues the fight for morning after pill vending machines at the University of Florida

About National Women’s Liberation

National Women’s Liberation (NWL) is a feminist group for women and trans* people who do not benefit from male supremacy who want to fight back and win more freedom. We believe that change comes about from the actions of everyday people — not politicians, the courts, lobbyists or the media. The freedoms we have now were won by movements of women, organizing and fighting for change. We aim to build an organization of feminist organizers to bring new fire to the fight for our liberation. We are funded by member dues, not corporations or their foundations.

Women of color are critical to the success of the women’s liberation movement. We oppose racism, and we believe that women won’t be free as long as any part of our class isn’t free. We do not accept any gains that benefit white women at the expense of women of color because they only divide and weaken the movement. NWL commits to struggling against sexism and racism. For these reasons, NWL has a Women of Color Caucus.

Overview

• In 2013, NWL won over-the-counter access to the morning after pill (MAP) with no restrictions after a decade-long legal battle.
• In 2017, NWL’s campus committee launched a campaign to get the morning after pill in vending machines on UF and Santa Fe College campuses. We have continued pushing for it with direct action ever since. 
• On July 19, 2022, University of Florida (UF) student government passed a resolution written by Graduate Senator Joe Andreoli, Minority Party Leader Faith Corbett, and District D Senator Ryan Athay to increase access to emergency contraception at UF in vending machines. The resolution and the passing of it were directly tied to the ongoing work of National Women's Liberation (NWL).

Background

The morning after pill (MAP), often called by its trade name Plan B, is a medication that consists of a higher dosage of the hormones found in your average birth control pack and is considered as safe as Advil. It prevents pregnancy if taken within 3 days of unprotected sex, but it’s more effective if taken within 24 hours. This means having unrestricted access to MAP is essential to preventing unwanted pregnancies. Now that Roe has been overturned, we need to fight for every tool we can to regain some of the bodily autonomy that has been stripped from us.

Right now, you could walk into CVS and purchase Plan B, no matter your age or gender, and you wouldn't have to show your ID. But it hasn't always been this way.

Winning MAP over-the-counter through direct action

It's not common knowledge that members of National Women’s Liberation (NWL) and its predecessor groups fought in a 10-year long legal battle to win access to MAP. We sued the Bush and Obama administrations to get MAP from prescription-only to over-the-counter with no restrictions. We organized countless direct actions and achieved wins with our grassroots feminist movement. We’re not going to stop now.

NWL members testified before the FDA about their own experiences and spoke about why there should not be restrictions on MAP. The testimony showed that women, girls, and anyone who can get pregnant need MAP for a myriad of reasons, not just a worse case scenario, but we were told that personal testimony was too subjective.

NWL ran a civil disobedience campaign. We pledged to “give a friend the morning after pill,” in violation of the prescription requirement. We faxed our pledges to the FDA — over 4,400 faxes from women in every state. We threw the pill into the crowd at rallies and gave it away as a door prize at fundraisers.

NWL members blocked access to the FDA doors in a sit-in and filed a lawsuit against the FDA (and later added HHS), Tummino v Hamburg. Women linked arms and blocked the doors to the FDA, just like they were blocking our access to birth control. When these women got arrested, NWL then sued the FDA in court, successfully arguing that withholding over-the-counter access was a form of gender discrimination that was not based in science.

After the judge ruled in our favor, the Obama administration appealed the decision.  NWL held a National Week of Action including flashmobs in pharmacies where feminists put MAP on the shelf in pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens to pressure the administration to drop their appeal, which they did.

In 2013, National Women’s Liberation won over-the-counter access to MAP with no restrictions. Because we always go for what we really want — and what we really want is unrestricted, 24/7 access to MAP — we continue our fight today, bringing the fight to campus and demanding MAP in vending machines at the University of Florida. 

The morning after pill at the University of Florida

Members of NWL have a long history of fighting the University of Florida for access to the morning after pill. In the 1990s, when MAP was prescription-only, there was an anti-choice UF pharmacist who refused to dispense MAP. Furthermore, the UF infirmary required patients fill out a degrading and insulting form stating what method of birth control they would use going forward before the infirmary would prescribe MAP. Our predecessor group Gainesville Women’s Liberation and Campus NOW feminists marched on UF, demanding they get rid of this form. We protested in the Plaza of the Americas to demand access to MAP without irrelevant anti-woman interrogations about our sex lives. As a result of our actions, the pharmacist was fired from UF and the form was done away with.

In 2017, NWL’s campus committee launched a campaign to get the morning after pill in vending machines on UF and Santa Fe College campuses. We were inspired by other universities already offering Plan B vending machines, a number that continues to increase across the country. The need was clear then, as it is now. Despite MAP’s over-the-counter status, restrictions remain.

Emily Calvin, Gainesville chapter steering committee chair said, “MAP is often STILL behind the counter in many pharmacies, or it's in a big, bulky anti-theft box. It's embarrassing to have to interact with a cashier to purchase it. Sometimes it's not even in stock which delays in taking this time-sensitive medication. When it is in stock, it’s $40 or $50.” However, you can purchase MAP at the UF infirmary for $10. But the infirmary has limited hours. They are open M-F 8am-4:30pm in the summer months and M-F 8am-5pm and Sundays 12-4 during the fall and spring semesters.

Our campaign began with a letter to the editor, which we published in The Independent Florida Alligator in November 2017 documenting all the reasons we need 24/7 access to the UF infirmary’s $10 morning after pill. Based on this work, Zachariah Chou, a former UF student government senator, wrote a resolution for the morning after pill in vending machines, which ultimately failed. We have continued pushing for it with direct action ever since.

NWL members wrote a proposal for MAP vending machines on-site for the Reitz Union Board of Managers. They refused us, saying they “had absolutely no interest in placing such a vending machine at the Reitz Union but would be interested in helping look for alternative spaces.” 

We gathered personal testimony about the need for MAP in Gainesville through an anonymous online survey and walk-up Consciousness-Raising (CR). We discovered that barriers such as availability, cost, and shame were common themes among people needing MAP. All of these could be eliminated with a UF MAP vending machine.

We held a speak-out at the Reitz Union to demand MAP in vending machines. Women spoke publicly about how a MAP vending machine would have made their experience better, and how it would make a difference moving forward.

We disrupted a talk by President Kent Fuchs and demanded to know why UF had still not taken action. When he finally agreed to meet with us, he claimed it was “not his place to say anything on the matter.”

Alia DeLong, Gainesville steering committee member, was the chair of the NWL campus committee during this time. From 2017-2020, NWL met with countless stakeholders to make the MAP vending machine a reality, including the Reitz Union, Newell Hall, GatorWell, the UF infirmary pharmacy, President Kent Fuchs, and UF Business Services. We received great encouragement from the UF infirmary pharmacy, who are experts — so why did other UF departments and facilities resist us so strongly? DeLong added, “NWL is committed to reclaiming any and all bodily autonomy now that Roe was overturned. We want to believe that the UF administration will support this, but so far their response has been less than lukewarm on the whole. We plan to continue the fight and build a feminist movement to make real wins here.”

Now, nearly 5 years after our original Alligator letter to the editor, UF student government has passed a resolution to increase access to emergency contraception at UF in vending machines. The morning after pill vending machine is back in the hands of UF student government, infirmary pharmacy, and Business Services. Key authors include Graduate Senator Joe Andreoli, Minority Party Leader Faith Corbett, and District D Senator Ryan Athay.

Corbett also serves as the University of Florida’s Student Senate’s Women Caucus Co-Leader. Within this, they passed a Resolution Recognizing and Supporting Sexual and Reproductive Health Resources and Opportunities. Corbett said, “During the research for this project, Andreoli and I decided to commit to a greater extension of this project and reinitiate NWL’s efforts to get an emergency contraceptive vending machine on campus. We are committed to this project and will be collaborating closely with NWL and the University’s resources, such as the Student Health Care Center, GatorWell, Newell Hall, the Reitz Union, and Turlington Plaza.” The MAP vending machine project has been a longstanding commitment and is an idea that has now been reintroduced and passed on the UF Student Senate floor.

We need a movement of feminists to fight for what we really want, and to bring our ideas and initiatives, such as a MAP vending machine, to fruition.

Sign up for our email list at www.womensliberation.org to stay updated as this project progresses.

Special thanks to the work of the American Society for Emergency Contraception and their Emergency Contraception for Every Campus campaign.