20 Chapter 1March for Women’s Lives, which brought a re-
cord 1.15 million people to Washington, D.C.
to advocate for women’s reproductive health
options, including access to abortion clinics,
effective birth control, emergency contracep-
tion, and reproductive health services (Reuss &
Erickson, 2006). See Sidebar 1.2: “The Morning
After” for NOW’s advocacy on behalf of Plan
B. NOW has been working to get the United
States to ratify the United Nations’ Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimina-
tion against Women (CEDAW), an interna-
tional treaty that would ensure human rights
for women around the world. The United States
is the only industrialized country in the world
not to have ratified CEDAW.
The women’s movement is not limited
to the United States, but the U.S. women’s
movement serves a larger portion of women
compared to the movements in other coun-
tries, which are less cohesive. In other coun-
tries, the women’s movements could pose
a threat to people’s national identity whenMost of us feel rightly embarrassed when we
ask a woman if she works and she says, “Yes, I
work at home all day taking care of two kids, a
cat, a dog, and a husband.” In 1967, NOW en-
dorsed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA),
which was proposed in 1923 and passed by
Congress in 1972 but fell 3 states short of the
38 (three-fourths) needed for ratification in- The ERA was reintroduced to Congress
in 2009 by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
(D-NY) and Congresswoman Judy Biggert
(R-IL), but Congress still has not voted on the
bill. (The late Senator Edward Kennedy (D-
MA) was a lead sponsor of the amendment.)
In 1992, NOW organized a campaign to elect
women and feminist persons to political of-
fice, which helped send a record-breaking
number of women to Congress and to state
governments.
NOW also has organized marches to re-
duce violence against women and to promote
reproductive rights. In 2004, NOW organized
the largest mass action in U.S. history, the
SIDEBAR 1.2:The Morning After
Levonorgestrel, or Plan B, is a contraceptive that is commonly known as the “morning after pill.”
It is widely misconstrued as an abortifacient (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecolo-
gists, 2009; Reznik, 2010). It is most effective in preventing pregnancy when taken within 24 hours
of intercourse. Plan B stops or delays ovulation to prevent fertilization. It does not work once
the egg is fertilized, which explains why it rapidly loses its effectiveness with the passage of time.
Thus Plan B is similar to a high-dose birth control pill and operates in the same way. People often
confuse Plan B with Mifeprex (RU-486), an abortifacient that was widely publicized in the 1990s
and approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000. Plan B was approved by the
FDA in 1999 with a prescription. In 2009, a federal court ordered the FDA to make Plan B avail-
able to women age 17 and older without a prescription. However, it is not clear how accessible
Plan B is. The lack of knowledge about what Plan B is and what Plan B does may make women
wary of taking it. A 2009 study of pharmacy students showed that one-third mistakenly thought
Plan B disrupted an implanted ovum (Ragland & West, 2009). In addition, some pharmacists and
emergency rooms fail to stock the drug—again, in part due to the failure to understand how Plan
B operates.M01_HELG0185_04_SE_C01.indd 20 6/21/11 12:18 PM