Plan B, also known as “the Morning-After Pill” isn't too different from The Pill itself … but it was decades before women could get it. We explore the roller coaster history of bringing emergency contraception to our pharmacy shelves with policy analyst Kirsten Moore, who was riding that roller coaster too. Loop the loop with us through literal truckloads of paperwork, meetings on Washington DC park benches, lawsuits, betrayals, corporate buyouts, leaked FDA documents, public resignations, and McDonald’s-level ad campaigns.

01:21 What Emergency Contraception is and isn’t

02:03 A speed-history from hormones to contraceptives

03:57 Kirsten's path to a career in Reproductive Health

11:22 The birth of Plan B

15:02 Behind the counter, or over it?

17:24 Political intrigues by president

24:01 The “Wahoo!” moment

28:37 Reflections on bureaucratic warfare

Guest

Our guest, policy analyst Kirsten Moore, is Director of the EMAA Project (Expanding Medication Abortion Access).

Find Us Online

- Website: https://shows.acast.com/extraordinary-the-fight-for-reproductive-justice

- Substack: https://theextraordinarypodcast.substack.com/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_extraordinary_podcast

Credits

- Host & Producer: Carolyn Silveira. Website: www.carolynsilveira.com, Instagram: @cmoneycmonster Substack: https://rhymeschemes.substack.com

- Producer: Jennifer Bassett, Big Din Productions Website: www.bigdinproductions.com

- Editor: Carolyn Silveira & Jennifer Bassett

- Mixing: Max Liebman - Theme music: Katrina Zemrak

- Cover art: Mauricio Diaz

About Us

Extra+Ordinary is a despair-free podcast about abortion & reproductive justice that looks to the past – to fuel our fight for the future.

Join host Carolyn Silveira, a writer and social justice advocate, for inspiring stories of the people and moments that changed history, giving women (and all people) more control over our bodies and lives. From an evangelical doctor who became an abortion provider to “nice housewives” who risked jail time to help other women, we’ll learn how ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

See bonus content at: https://theextraordinarypodcast.substack.com/

Additional music in this episode:

rams horn2 .wav by mutatorscotch -- https://freesound.org/s/400806/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 3.0
String quartet in Paris street.m4a by lmartins -- https://freesound.org/s/544004/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

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If at first you don’t succeed, try Plan B again