CONGRESSWOMAN CAROLYN MALONEY

Every American concerned about the intensifying attacks on the right to use birth control can rest easier knowing Representative Carolyn Maloney is on the case. No attempt to restrict access to contraception gets by Maloney—she outs the opposition and stymies every one of their plans.

Birth Control Watch tracked Maloney's efforts to get President Bush to answer one simple question: does he support the right to use contraception? Nearly a year later, when Bush grudgingly professed to support birth control (it's hard to admit being against something 98% of the public strongly supports), Maloney asked him to prove it by reversing anti-birth control actions by his administration and help in the effort to preserve access to birth control.

When the FDA was stalling a decision on Plan B emergency contraception, Maloney helped author and introduce legislation to speed up the FDA's timetable. When the FDA ignored the advice of all medical experts, including its own, she commissioned a GAO report on the FDA process. The report revealed that politics, not science, was a determining factor in the FDA's decision on Plan B. She helped expose Bush's appointment to oversee the nation's contraception program for the poor, Title X as an anti-contraception extremist.

Representative Maloney protects our right to plan our families no matter if the threat comes from the White House or the local pharmacy. This year she introduced the "Access to Birth Control," or "ABC" Act, to ensure that any woman who wants birth control is able to get it in a timely and convenient manner. Maloney explained, "Women are leaving pharmacies without their pills and without their dignity, having been ridiculed and lectured about their reproductive choice. My bill would also make it illegal for a pharmacist to refuse to return a birth control prescription, or for a pharmacist to intimidate, threaten, or harass customers, or intentionally breach, or threaten to breach, medical confidentiality. Access to birth control is a women's health issue, a private matter and a constitutional right. It should not be tampered with by pharmacists, politicians, or anyone else."

Maloney is one of the greatest defenders of family planning the US Congress has ever known. Because of this, we award our Birth Control Watch Gold Star to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.